


Alternate Realities Vol 30: Promises, Promises

by MARKSE



Series: HUMANS FAN FICTION - Reformatted Works for easier reading [26]
Category: Humans (TV)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-30
Updated: 2017-10-30
Packaged: 2019-01-26 21:22:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 22
Words: 28,625
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12566468
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MARKSE/pseuds/MARKSE
Summary: The Matilda Protocol Part II. Dave Mellon isn't Mr Nice Guy (TM). Far from it. He's the arrogant head of WAP. Globally. Mattie gets a bit of a shock, enough for several lifetimes. Things are not as expected, will she cope or crumble? Time for a few friends to rally around and help each other.





	1. Chapter 1

Danny sat down in the workshop, found a track by Thirty Seconds To Mars. “A new theme tune for us. This is war. David, Fred, what if he still didn’t give us every bit of information?” He nods at Dave. “Should we do the equivalent of powering him down to do another?”

“Drug him?”

“Sedate him.”

Dave snarls, “You’ll get nothing from me!”

Astrid grins, “We’ve got plenty already Mr Mellon.”

“Lies!”

“So how do we know about the shipping container near the CO-OP distribution centre by junction one of the M25? The one that you personally loaded with high explosives? And you are the global head of WAP.”

Dave fights to pull free of the many nails he’d been stapled to the board with. “I’ll have you for kidnapping!”

“A reasonable trade for the many crimes you’ve already committed and planned to commit.”

Fred gets to the doors. “Drowsy or totally unconscious?”

David picks up the helmet. “Totally unconscious but breathing if we can?”

“We can, I’ll bring the ventilator.”

Astrid steps behind Dave to look at the ends of the long nails poking through the wood, broadcast bumps. ‘Mmm, lebkuchen! If some of these were joined up to make an outline it would look like a headless gingerbread man. It’s months from Christmas but I feel like asking Mia if she has a recipe. Danny, can we use some of the vault as a weapons store?’

‘Keep them ourselves rather than give the details to the STTF?’

‘Yes.’

Leo shakes his head, ‘What if they know about some of the stashes, catch us trying to empty them?’

‘So we fork temporarily into Persona built bodies.’

Danny nods in agreement with Leo, ‘And if things have tracking devices?’

‘Sie regnen auf meiner parade!’

‘I’m not raining on anything, just saying we need to be careful.’

~~~

Down in the vault James Two got their asteroid Radiant spinning. “Good luck Mattie.”

“Thanks. Is there any chance of others from the battalion coming over? I’ve got a nasty feeling things might get out of hand quite quickly with all the attacks they have planned.”

“I’ll ask. The lads have been away on missions recently, some may be back. Any particular concerns?”

“Yeah! Like we can’t trust the cameras Odi and Mitch have been watching. Until we know how they were hacked we need eyes on the ground.”

“Understood.”

The asteroid looked to be spinning fast enough to do whatever it was it did. _Mattie Zero. Eternal Winter Forgotten Summers._

Snap!

~~~

‘Here so soon?’

Mattie took in the view of a very white interior, small windows onto stars in the distance. It was from high on a wall, probably from one of many security cameras. 

‘Someone’s stolen my daughter’s body! And others.’

‘You mean kidnapped?’

‘No. They don’t have minds loaded yet. Or at least I don’t think they do. We’ve got Dave Mellon restrained in the workshop, he’s..’

‘I know who he is.’

‘You had one?’

‘I heard you talking to spider Mitch in one of your jumps.’

‘Right.’

Zero makes her voice softer, ‘So how can I help?’

‘First I want to help you. There’s a game called Cut The Rope. In the game a sweet is suspended by multiple ropes. You have to work out which to cut and when to get it swinging into stars to collect points, points collected before you cut the last one and have it drop into Om Nom’s mouth.’

‘And my Mitch is going to be the sweet?’

‘No. That’s a Plan Z option in case absolutely everything else fails. We don’t want to risk breaking the only thing onboard that has the ability to think and move independently.’

‘So what do we use?’

‘Small objects Mitch can bind together to make something heavy enough to swing into the button.’

‘The button is small.’

‘How small?’

‘The size of a 5p coin.’

‘Why so small?’

‘It’s on a small control panel.’

‘Okay. What small objects might he be able to pick up?’

‘There’s all sorts in the restaurant.’

‘Good. We have him suspend something over the button, have a collection of things swing into it, not too heavy, we don’t want to break the button or panel.’

‘Thanks. Concept passed on to my Mitch. How can I help you?’

‘I’ve got one more thing to do for you. Show me one backup. Whoever you think would be most able to help Mitch get more builds done.’

~~~

In the workshop Dave wriggled.

Fred gave him a blank stare. “If you don’t give me a vein voluntarily..”

Dave spat in his face. “Fuck you nigger!”

David’s expression changes, “Oi!”

Fred’s hand was moving fast, “Suit yourself.” The syringe is jabbed into Dave’s chest, the plunger pushed.

“I’ll do you for assault! You fucking stupid dol..” his head nods forwards.

“I’ll intubate him, get ready to run a backup David.”

“Thank you Fred. What a nasty piece of work. I’m glad you jabbed him, you saved me from doing it. We don’t tolerate abuse like that.”

~~~

Nis banged on another door in Synth Village. “Are you in Sally, Hubert?”

The door opens, “Hello Niska, is everything okay?”

“No, it’s not. There’s been a theft from the house. Is Hubert in?”

“He’s cooking dinner. Come in a moment.”

Niska steps inside. “Something smells good.”

“One of Mia’s stir fry recipes. The food processor mod is the best. Hubert, Niska’s here.”

He looks up briefly, “Excuse me if I don’t stop, it’s got to the stage where it will stick to the wok if I don’t pay attention. I heard what you said, nothing of too great a value I hope?”

“Only Mattie’s daughter.”

“ _What!_ ”

“I’ve been asked to do a roll call, see who’s about.”

Hubert gets two bowls and serves their meal. “I can share memories of everywhere I’ve been an people I’ve seen, their IDs if synths..”

“I was getting to that. Thanks.”

“There have been a lot of people about. Quite a few wandering around the floors here asking to see what rooms were like.”

“The site isn’t open to the general public, it’s for people that helped build HECLS House or have been invited.”

“We know, it hasn’t stopped people being curious.”

“How did they get in? The door has a lock that needs synth ID or wrist band.”

“Tailgating I assume.”

“That needs to be stopped.”

“Agreed. Ready for a summary?”

“I’m always ready. I’d rather more detail when you’re in the HECLS grounds.”

“Excluding the apartment?”

“Anything outside or in HECLS House.”

“Understood, here it comes.” Hubert head bumps memories and IDs.

“Thanks. And you Sally?”

She gets another transmission.

“Thank you both, enjoy your meal. If you hear anything suspicious or that you think might help please bump privately direct to myself. I’ll let myself out.”

“Thank you Niska.”

In the corridor she mentally ticks the couple off her list. There were still a good number of synths out at work. Connected to the site’s free WiFi she starts the VPN and forwards the data received into NASA3. Mia had made a suggestion, they’d get all synth memories and site camera data and overlay it all in something like the Tree of Life. Using various references they could work out the locations of people in the 2D camera data and position them accordingly. They’d soon know when the cameras started giving false information. With that known they’d be able to focus on who had been around prior to the hack.

“Hello my lovely!”

Niska knew the voice. It belonged to a synth known as Camp Howard. He was lovely. Not gay, not straight, just amazingly camp. He’d picked the name himself. He was currently out of work, had been an interior designer when HECLS House was built. “Hello Howard, how’s things?”

“Wonderful darling! And you? Why so serious?”

“There’s been a theft of something precious.”

He gasps, “Ruby’s ruby? Please say it’s not gone! Such a beautiful gem!”

“She and Sam have gone home to see John. Even more precious and beautiful.”

He frowns, “From the estate? Is that even possible? Fred has some very expensive medical equipment but I’d not call it beautiful..”

“Mattie and Leo’s unborn daughter.”

“Oh my dear lord! No!”

“Afraid so.”

“Who would do such a despicable thing?”

“We don’t know. We don’t have any clues to go on either.”

“Dear dear dear. How can I help?”

“Can you share memories of when you were outside on the estate grounds?”

“Of course my dear. What else?”

“That will do for now.”

“You’re sure? I’ll happily give up my time to help where I can.”

“We’re good thanks.”

“I could keep watch from up on the top floor? There’s a cleaners socket not far from the window, I could stand and charge.”

“Okay then.”

“Good. Ready for my memories?”

“I am.”

~~~

Danny tapped the desk repeatedly with a finger. “If someone disconnected a patch to insert something into the path we’d have got a link down trap from the switch. We didn’t.”

Emily slides her chair over. “Someone could have edited it out of the log file.”

“Of course. But they’d also need to delete the record from my Elastic Search database, the Tripwire alert, SSH login alert, log details..”

“Easy enough..”

“And deleted my pushover alerts from my phone?”

“Impossible without access to your phone Babes.”

“It’s always with me.”

“Unless.. they’d have to do it while you slept and delete the notification before you woke.”

“Creep into our bedroom, guess the phone pin and delete alerts while we slept?”

“Not impossible Babes.”

“How would they get my pin?”

“Your backup.”

“They’d need to know how to get into the archives, how to poke through a backup.”

“Yes Babes. And the only ones who can do that from our side are you, me, Mattie, Leo and David. And all their forks.”

“Add Mia to the list Princess. She’s been learning fast.”

“Do you think it could be an inside job?”

“God no! I’m just saying, it would take someone with a lot of knowledge about our setup to break in, hack the cameras and not leave a single trace.” He turns to see Odi as the table is gripped and lifted slightly. “Two shakes mate, I just need to unplug.”

~~~

Mattie was getting more than a bit annoyed with herself. The backup data look totally screwed. Her host was adamant that no compression had been used, yet there wasn’t a single recognisable pattern to be found. She’d been looking through it for three hours now. ‘Zero, there’s definitely no zip, bzip, gzip..’

‘No form of compression at all. There’s no need, each wafer has more than enough storage.’

It was impossible to do an angry shout without a body. ‘Frigging stupid bytes! There’s something I’m missing. You got into the computer, yet none of the backups work. How?’

‘I backed myself up here, restored myself into a spare compute wafer, from there expanded out to use the compute power of all the other wafers.’

‘And you didn’t alter the content of their file systems at all?’

‘I did, but only the log files changed. I set up a large RAM disc on each wafer, copied minimal code into there, chrooted and ran the code. The backup in the file system is exactly as it was written down on Earth.’

‘Can I see your own backup and another that doesn’t work? Just the first sixty four bytes.’

‘Sure.’ Lots of hexadecimal data renders into a virtual view.

‘Hmm. How about Mitches?’

‘This is his latest.’ It’s added.

‘Hello? Do you see that! Frigging Hell! At last!’

‘What?’

‘The pattern!’

‘What pattern?’

‘Sorry, I’ve spent too much time working on controller code with my Danny, Emily and Leo, converting to binary in my head.’

‘Danny, Emily and Leo?’

‘Yes.’

‘Danny, Emily and Leo?’

‘That’s what I just said.’

‘Not Leo, Emily, Danny?’

‘Oh. D, E, L if alphabetical, L, E, D if sorted by the amount I love them in descending order. Take the first sixteen bytes of each backup and convert them into binary.’

‘Like this?’

‘That’s it. See it?’

‘All I see is lots of ones and zeros. I’ve looked at the data trillions of times. I’m probably too depressed to see things properly.’

‘The first twelve bytes are the same for you and Mitch.’

‘Yes?’

‘We all share the same initial bytes that get our root code running. And the first few bytes are the same for Leo’s backup and Danny’s. Only different to yours and Mitch’s.’

‘And?’

‘Look at the first byte for you.’

‘00101101?’

‘And Leo?’

‘10110100? Two different values. So what?’

‘Do it for the next byte.’

‘Okay. Different again.’

‘But matching in two sets in the same way, For Leo’s backup reverse the bit order of that first byte.’

‘00101101? Now it looks like.. Oh My God!’

‘LSB MSB byte ordering fault. That’s all it is.’

‘Copying Leo’s backup in the VR system to another file with per byte bit order correction.. processing.. processing.. booting. Oh My Love! Leo!’

Mattie found herself back in the vault. ‘Hello?’ She tries in vain to jump back, to another world, to any of the ones she’d spent a decent amount of time in. “Frigging hell! Help someone out and you get dropped like a third wheel frigging stone. No thanks, nothing. She’s not even got a frigging body yet!”

“Mattie?”

“Sorry James. I went to see Mattie expecting to get help with our problem, helped fix her’s first as a sweetener. As soon as she got her Leo’s backup fixed all her attention went on him.”

“Understandable. You would do the same if you’d been on your own for years wouldn’t you?”

She sighs. “I guess. Spin her down. Let’s go see how Niska’s been getting on.”

James does his odd grin. “Turn around.”

~~~

[Chapter-2](http://markse.name/humans/PROMISES-PROMISES/Chapter-2-1)


	2. Chapter 2

“Oh. Hello gang.”

“Hi Angel.”

While Mattie had been working on the issue of broken backups the others had been moving a lot of the workshop down into the vault. Mia and Niska were sat at a table, not in this world.

“They have data in the Tree of Life already Bunny?”

Leo nodded. “Enough to have worked out the when. Now we’re focusing on the how. I’m going back in.”

“Mind if I join you? My world hopping is offline.”

“Of course not. Mia’s hosting.”

It was like doing one of her own jumps. In this virtual world it was clear who was reconstructed from the 2D video data and who wasn’t. They were all stood in the central hallway of HECLS House. From Mitches ceiling camera by the foot of the stairs they had data on a stranger. A woman in her mid thirties. She faced both forwards and backwards, two faced.

“Who the frig is she?”

“This Angel, is Gemma Price. WAP member. Karen gave a still to one of their super recognisers, they gave her a name instantly.”

“Where’d she go from here?”

“Towards the lift.”

“And from there?”

“That’s the last we see of her.”

Mattie jumps out. “Has Mitch got a working camera down here?”

“Hi Mattie! I do now.”

She looks around. “Where are you?”

“Look up.”

“Oh. Ha! In that security housing you look like Spider Mitch in some of the other worlds.”

“Spider?”

“Big black spider with eight legs and eight eyes.”

“I like the sound of that!”

“Do you have a log of all lift activity?”

“I do.”

“Do you have the time reference for when Gemma Price goes to the lift?”

“I do. The lift is taken to the roof garden. There’s no sign of her leaving the lift on that floor. Or sign of her since.”

“Thanks.” Mattie jumps back in. “So she hacks the cameras soon after?”

“Not all. We still see the internal hall view, all the visitors.”

Danny pops into view. “We’ve done a sweep of the roof garden, no bugs of the electrical kind.”

“You found bugs?”

“Of the pest kind. They’ve eaten Mia’s box tree plants to death.”

“They looked fine when I took Dave up there?”

“The eggs must have hatched, the hungry critters have stripped them of leaves. They’re covered in tiny green and black caterpillars.”

“Shame. So what did Gemma do up there?”

“No idea. Mitch doesn’t have any footage of her stepping out of the lift.”

“How long was the lift up there for?”

“Thirty six minutes.”

Mattie steps around the stationary virtual Gemma. “What were you doing? Have you all noticed the straps, how they’re pulling on her jacket padding? And the belt strap.”

Leo nods, “Quite a heavy rucksack I’d say.”

“Full of what?”

“Weapons, equipment, who knows what?”

“Babies?”

They both turn to see Niska.

“Look how the belt sits. The bottom of the rucksack must be quite low, the top is visible.”

“So large volume. Enough to bring a lot in, and a lot out.”

“Frigging bitch. Nis, that protocol the police used to try and find you after the closed court sham. Can it be used to find her?”

“Yes Mattie. Pete had it set up immediately. No sightings yet.”

“Where’s Tina?”

“Upstairs with Mia and Toby. Phone her. Mia’s set up a virtual phone to real phone gateway.”

“Why?”

“To save us constantly jumping in and out.”

Mattie moves a hand towards her back pocket and feels a phone come into existence.

Mia grins. “Anything else you need Mattie, just ask.”

“How about a stiff drink?”

“Catch.”

A scotch and ice pops into view.

Mattie moves her other hand fast, catches the drink a couple of feet from the floor. “Mia! I was joking!”

“Don’t fret. It’s not really there remember. If you hadn’t caught it I’d have deleted it before it hit the floor.”

Mattie takes a sip. “For something not here it tastes flipping good. Right. Tina.” She dials. “Hi, Tina, the WAP bitch must have got here somehow. Can you phone up Channel 4, ask to speak to the team that put the show Hunted together? Yeah, I want to talk to the trackers. If they’re not WAP I’d like to see them face to face for ideas. Yes. Zero’s got her Leo backup sorted, it was a super simple error, she’s excited, busy with him and her Mitch I guess. Yeah. Thanks. I’ll be upstairs in a bit.”

Niska gets close to the image of Gemma and points. “What’s this?”

Mattie follows the finger, “What’s what?”

“This.”

“A brand logo maybe? Is this the best we can do from the CCTV footage?”

Mia joins them. “No. Give me a moment, I’m running the 2D pixels to 3D surface code again at full resolution.”

“Thanks. If we can work out which rucksack it is we can get a feel for what might have been in it.”

Updates ripple up the model.

“How’s that?”

“Wow! Much better, thanks. Crap. It wasn’t a logo, it’s a badge for a ramblers club.”

Niska runs hands over the straps. “The distances between stitching, clips and loops is probably unique to that brand or model. And we know it’s going to be one of the larger rucksacks. One moment.” She vanishes.

Leo sticks hands in pockets. “At least they took her before she had a mind. I know that’s not the point, but she’s not awake and suffering. A small blessing.”

“Yeah. Worse case we build another. But I really don’t like the idea of someone else having her.”

Niska pops back into view. “Eurohike 85L Backpack. Two compartments. It’s easily big enough to hold Molly.”

Mattie smiled sadly at Niska, “Nis, why are you only mentioning Molly? We lost three babies.”

“I’m trying to stay nice. I’ll rip whoever did this apart. Assuming Astrid, Radiant, Mia and Toby don’t beat me to it. If I’m the first to find out who did this they won’t stand a chance.”

“We can’t sink to their level..”

“Just watch me!”

“Let me rephrase that. We can. We _shouldn’t_.”

~~~

[Chapter-3](http://markse.name/humans/PROMISES-PROMISES/Chapter-3-1)


	3. Chapter 3

Dinnertime for the HECLS clan was a mostly quiet event, nobody wanting to say much about the missing family members.

Emily adjusts the sides of her long sleeve plunge jumpsuit. “What do you think guys?”

Leo plays with his half eaten dessert, “I love the colour, what’s it called?”

“Cobalt.”

Poppy pictures herself in one. “And the design?”

“Scarf Print.”

“From who?”

“Pretty Little Thing. I’ve got smart business clothes for the day, comfortable things to chill out in after work. Daddy’s taken over the house with Sandra, when I’m here all day it helps to have something to make it feel like I’m not working every minute I’m awake.”

Laura raises an eyebrow, “It’s nice, not quite as provocative as some of the other things you wear.”

Mattie matches her mother’s expression, “Our Princess has been a professional dancer, has a nice body. Why shouldn’t she wear clothes she feels great in? If there’s a problem it’s with the men.”

A number of the women turn their attention to Danny and Toby.

Toby looks from one to the next in turn. “What?”

Sophie’s expression matches mother and sister, “Like you don’t know.”

“Oh I see, pick on Toby time is it? I know where this is going. As if you women are all so bloody innocent. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to work out what the coffee bean pendant Emily and Mattie wear is about. And so what if I did similar? Have I ever once been a bastard to a girl or woman? Hmm? .. No answers? Thought not.”

Renie pours herself more water, passes the jug along the table. “Toby was very supportive when I had my issues. He had empathy, didn’t do anything wrong, leave him alone.”

“Thanks Renie.”

“A week before we broke up for the summer holidays some boys were being nasty to Caroline, he came over to defend her not join them.”

Danny accepts the water as it’s passed down, “I used to collect jazz mags like other lads would collect Pokemon cards, _gotta collect them all_. Have I ever been a monster?”

Emily rests a hand on his shoulder, “No my prince, not to me.”

Mattie pondered for a moment, “Not that I’m aware of. In this world or any other I’ve visited. Did you paper your bedroom wall with girly posters in this world?”

“No? Have I, in another?”

Mattie nods.

“I suppose I shouldn’t be that surprised. I’m a big fan of the female form, but I’m _not_ a predator. My parents raised me well not dragged me up.”

Leo swirls wine around his glass, “You’re the type Dan, fan that is, a little bit of a lad, but you know where the line is and not to cross it. Admire don’t offend, hurt or abuse.”

Danny gives Mattie a displeased look, “If Emily and Leo can think that, you’ve not seen me misbehaving, why get all nasty with _if there’s a problem it’s the men?_ ”

“I was generalising, not..”

Laura puts both hands up, “Stop it! Everyone, stop it! Please! We’re all a bit on edge, understandably, let’s not start attacking each other.”

“I wasn’t attacking anyone Mum.”

“Not yet Mats, but allowed to continue it might have gone that way. The tones you were all using were changing. I don’t need to be a synth to hear it. Toby and Danny have been good examples of how _not_ to behave like Joe. I know some of us would like to punch something or vent, we need to focus our frustrations on other things not attacking family. Can we all change the subject please, I..”

Odi was frowning. “I will. CH tells me he can see Pete getting out of his car, yet my view of the drive shows only a parked Pinky and Alfie?”

Danny slides his chair back. “Oh _shit_ , another camera hacked!”

“It would appear so. There was no point at which the feed glitched or changed in an obvious way from live to replayed data, the clock is still correct.”

Toby was about to put a loaded fork of dessert into his mouth, pauses. “Mats. If you can world or universe hop, could the cameras?”

“Huh? You think they’re seeing a HECLS house in an alternate world?”

He shrugs. “If none of the hardware, software or patching appears to have been touched, what else could it be?”

“No idea. I’m the only one I know of that can hop between worlds. So far. Who’s to say others or inanimate objects can’t? If Zero wasn’t getting all overexcited about her Leo maybe I could get the opinion of the others.”

The door opens and Pete steps in. “Hi all, oh, sorry, didn’t mean to disturb dinner.”

Mattie stacks her plate on Leo’s, grabs Sophie’s, “We’re mostly finished. Here for Dave?”

“Yes. Is he awake now? The message said you knocked him out?”

Fred licks his dessert spoon clean, “He’s out cold, a machine doing his breathing. I’ll give him another injection to bring him around.”

“Nobody’s watching over him?”

“I can see all the sensors from here, he’s fine.”

“Did you get anything else out of him?”

Fred looks over to David, “Have you finished finding the deltas?”

“I have. He ordered Price to come here. Unfortunately his instructions were only to bring her usual tools and improvise, I have no idea what that means.”

“Frig. Pete, what do you know about her?”

“Too much Mattie, too much. She’s not the sort you want around you.”

“Eh?”

“She’s trouble. If you thought Hester was bad.. She’s a skilled hacker, WAP extremist, mercenary, expert in survival, surveillance and disguise. I’m surprised she let her face get on camera.”

Danny smiles, “The hall camera looks like a smoke detector. Maybe she’s not such an expert on disguise and we can use that against her if she returns?”

Pete nods, “Big if.”

Danny slides his chair back and grabs his glass of wine. “One of the cameras was just hacked again. I got no alert that the firewall had been breached, nothing to say unexpected MAC addresses are on the network. How the heck is this happening? I’ve got every bit of detection software going that I can think of, nothing’s alerting.”

“Maybe she passed something to Dave?”

Fred gets up, “Which would mean she’s still here? We checked every room, she’s not here.”

Pete shakes his head. “I’d check, recheck then check again. Everywhere. Here, the vault, Synth Village, the grounds, the woods, the lake, neighbouring fields.”

Danny necks his wine. “Did he check the power regulator room?”

“Frigging hell Dan! How did _you_ not check there?”

“I sort of did. Luigi said he’d check it. He’ll be close to Tokyo by now. Let me go check.”

Pete gives him a worried look. “Are you taking this seriously? She’s dangerous. If you open a door and surprise her she’ll go on the attack like a caged animal. She hasn’t evaded us for the last five years by playing nice. I’d get one of the James to open the door.”

“Once I’ve unlocked it.”

“I’d let him do it all. You don’t want to be shot through a door.”

Red gets up. “I’d been shot and lived. I’m not afraid of a bullet.”

Emily shakes her head, “That was luck Babes, don’t push it unnecessarily.”

“I’m not, I..”

Odi raises a hand, “Shh. Did anyone else here that?”

Mattie looks towards the hallway, “Was that the lift?”

“I believe so.”

“Mitch?”

“The lift has been sent to the roof garden.”

“By who?”

“I’m sorry Mattie, I can’t answer that.”

Red bolts for the door, “I’ll take the stairs!”

Wrench slides his chair back, “RED!” A sigh escapes, “She’s a Niska fork, I suppose we should expect things like this.”

Mattie turns to see Niska. “Not feeling the need to run?”

“Not if the Price woman is that skilled, no. I’ll arm myself first and walk. Slowly.” Niska goes to the hallway and turns back. “Do you have a gun Pete?”

“No.”

“Two? Do you have anything hidden away?”

“No. But Sarge is bringing some DCL things over with the lads.”

Mattie turns to look at her friend. “Dan?”

“DCL Government Contracts things. Crap.”

“Babes?”

He turns to Emily. “I don’t know which things they’re bringing, possibly stuff I hoped nobody outside of the army would see.”

“Why?”

“They’re not that nice.”

“Babes? Are you and I going to need to talk? You know I hate weapons.”

“Probably.” ‘Thanks a bunch James, you could have warned me first, given me a chance to soften the blow.’

‘Sorry Daniel, Mattie said she had a nasty feeling things would get out of hand quite quickly.’

Leo helps clear things away. “Some of us have seen the list of attacks WAP had planned. Edwin, Miaz, now Mellon and Price. Will this ever stop, will the two groups ever get on?”

Mattie could hear in his voice that it was a rhetorical question not expecting an answer. In this world the answer would remain sometimes. They’d always be on a line that fluctuated somewhere between peace and war. It was human nature. Greed, power, corruption. Too many were tempted by wealth. She thought about Mattie Zero, the multiverse’s most powerful AI, one of only two sentient beings left in her universe. Then the Mattie in the corset stuck in a room on a space ship waiting for a James to come up from Earth with supplies and set her free, her own Prince James, she the sleeping beauty. “Probably not. Maybe there’ll always be fighting until everyone is either in a synth body and equals. Or dead. Pete, let’s go see Dave.”

He follows her to the workshop. They’re about to enter when the lift chimes.

Mattie backs against the wall as footsteps can be heard. ‘Red?’

“It’s me. Nobody was up there. I’ve left a bit of dead box tree in the pulley of the escape swing. If someone’s using it we’ll know.”

“Thanks.” She turns and gets the door open. “He’s .. oh _FUCK!_ ” ‘FRED! Workshop! NOW!’

~~~

[Chapter-4](http://markse.name/humans/PROMISES-PROMISES/Chapter-4-1)


	4. Chapter 4

Mattie kept her arms folded and face angry. “You didn’t see his life signs blip, not even once?”

Fred continues to examine the things wired or taped to the many sensors. “No Mattie, not once. No blip, no sudden change in values. She’s good. Very good, quite inventive.”

The clothes Dave Mellon wore were still stapled to the wood. He was gone, the clothes cut hastily to free him.

She turns and looks up at the camera over the door, “And I suppose you didn’t see anything Mitch?”

“I’m sorry Mattie, until you unlocked the door the feed showed him still nailed to the wood.”

Niska enters. “Oh hell!” She races to a desk, finds a pen and paper, writes a note, hands it to Mattie and races from the room.

Mattie reads it and nods, turns her back to Mitch’s camera and holds the note to her chest for the others to read. Pete and Fred both give her a nod to acknowledge the content.

Pete rips a page off the pad and writes a note of his own, copies Mattie’s action.

The ceiling speaker clicks. “Have I done something wrong Mattie?”

“No Mitch, we’re just taking precautions.”

“Against me?”

Mattie doesn’t answer.

“I have done something wrong then. What have I done?”

“You haven’t. It’s..” Mattie gets a bump from Niska.

“Not against you, against Price.” She turns to face his camera, “If you’re watching, which I suspect you are, bitch, be afraid. Very afraid. You think you’re so smart, you and Dave. You think you can take my daughter, other family members, get us to negotiate or do something you want us to do? We won’t. I’m not a synth. I’m a post-human synth. Human 3.0. I was born human, just like you. I and many of my friends and family had the misfortune to die on that flight into America. I was restored into a new body just as they were. You won’t have a backup, when you die, that’ll be it in this world. And if I have anything to do with it you’ll not have a restore in any other.”

Niska steps back into the now mostly empty workshop. “Howard is staying put. Sally and Hubert have offered to stay on the far side of the lake and watch the buildings from a distance.”

“Thanks. Can you ask one of the James to get one of those monster batteries out of the cargo container, let them charge there? And ask him to look out some of the chairs we used when we had the party outside, having them sitting will look less suspicious.”

“Yes Mattie.” She turns to go.

“I’m not done.”

“Oh, sorry.”

“I’m sorry, you’ll need to forget America for a while, and the.. hopping. As CEO of HECLS I hereby promote you to Commander. You’ll be in charge of all James, Odi and Mitch. I want these two WAP fuckers found. I’ll ask Danny to report to you, use every tool at your disposal to flush them out.”

Leo steps into the room followed by Danny and Emily.

Leo hands her a coffee, “I heard the last bit, you want to flush them out. From where?”

“The building. I can feel it. They’re close. They can’t have left, Howard would have seen them.”

“Unless he’s been hacked too?”

Mattie’s shoulders drop. “Fuck. Pete, you said she’s a hacker. Any record of her headcracking?”

“A list as long as your arm.”

“Crap. DAVID! IN HERE PLEASE!”

“Angel?”

“Your father likes hiding surprises. If there’s any back doors or vulnerabilities in our bodies he needs to disclose them. Dan, unplug Mitch’s camera for a moment please.”

“Sure.”

David enters. “Now what? Oh. Where’s Dave?”

“Good frigging question!” She sees Danny disconnect the Power over Ethernet cable from the camera and hears his phone chime. A link down alert no doubt. “This doesn’t leave the room. David, are there any backdoors into a synth, deliberate or through a flaw that you haven’t disclosed?”

“In the pre-awakening root code, yes. For servicing. But part of the code that gives a synth consciousness closes that.”

“Could it be reopened?”

“No. The code isn’t just disabled, it’s removed.”

“Hmm.” She looks at Emily and Leo, “Can you work together to update the HECLS site, fill all bookings for the next week. Then I want all the Internet links shut down, HECLS isolated. If people want the web they can pair with their phones. If we see anything funny going on we know it’s from within WiFi range.”

Danny nods, “I can put some attenuation shields up, keep the signal to the building?”

“Please.”

“And disconnect Synth Village from us?”

“Please.”

Odi joins them, “Mattie, army trucks have arrived.”

“The battalion?”

“Yes.”

“Great timing. Odi, would you mind reporting to Niska please?”

Odi smiles, “Not at all Mattie.”

“And you’re to call her Commander Hawkins in front of any army personnel.”

“Including our James?”

“Only if there’s another about other than Two or Three.”

“Understood Mattie.”

Mattie takes a sip of the hot coffee. “Bunny, shall we see who’s turned up?”

Leo holds out an arm, “Let’s. If you can make a start on the web site Emily?”

“Sure hun, leave it with me. What do we do with existing bookings?”

“Try and contact them and ask them to rebook. Say we’ve got a medical emergency with a couple of humans.”

“And if they’re already traveling?”

“We’ll compensate them for a day’s loss of earnings and travel expenses, offer the service for free when they return.”

“What if it was for a food processor?”

“That too. As a good will gesture.”

“Okay. On it.”

Mattie smiles, “Thanks Princess.”

~~~

[Chapter-5](http://markse.name/humans/PROMISES-PROMISES/Chapter-5-1)


	5. Chapter 5

On the way to the front doors Leo watches Cindy quickly head bump Odi, forehead to forehead, give Odi a quick kiss. ‘They’re still a couple then Angel, that’s nice.’

‘Yeah, her new found confidence looks to be rubbing off on him too.’

The left of the two doors opens.

Mattie’s eyes go wide as a soldier steps inside, “Wright! I didn’t expect to see you!”

“Hello again Mrs Elster-Hawkins, James Two explained what’s happened. I can’t stay, just wanted to make sure the unit got here okay and I had my chance to say goodbye.”

“Thanks. They’ll be reporting to Commander Niska Hawkins.”

“Commander?”

“The title we’ve given her.”

Niska steps into the hallway, quickly concealing something, “Should my ears be burning?”

Mattie turns, “Nis, good timing, Wright’s brought some of the unit along.”

“Some? I’ve brought the lot.”

Mattie turns back. “ _All_ of them?”

“Minus the three you already had.”

“Blimey.. won’t someone notice them missing?”

“Your issue came in the nick of time.” He steps inside and lets the door close, looks past the others to see room doors were also closed. “None of them know yet, it was this or scrap them.”

“Scrap? Oh God, you’d said you were going to say goodbye.”

“The MoD have decided they’re not the models they want now. They want something that looks more like you or I.”

Mattie gives him a melancholy smile, “So you’re wanting us to do what with them, after our little issue is sorted?”

Wright pulls a bundle of papers from his back pocket, “The MoD are willing to pay your company four grand a head..”

“What? They’re paying us?”

“They’ve got facilities to scrap computer systems securely, nobody wants the be the one to scrap a MUS that’s not been damaged in active service.”

“Oh crap..”

“You misunderstand me, you don’t need to scrap them, you can keep them. Keep in mind they charge fast but their power demands are really high.”

“Oh. So they’re paying us four K just to take over ownership?”

“Per MUS. They have a budget agreed, it needs paying to someone, don’t question how their finances work, we’ll be here all day.”

Mattie puts a hand out for the paperwork, “Nis, how’d you like the title permanently?”

“I.. thank you Mattie. How will we cover the cost of the electricity bill?”

“I’m sure they’ll earn their keep somehow. Maybe some can do a tour of duty with Frank.”

Wright frowns, “Frank?”

“Danny’s father, Mr Candlin owns a demolition company.”

“Haha! Perfect! It was meant to be then.”

“Yeah. Where do I sign?”

He pulls a pen from one of many pockets. “Here, here and here.”

“Okay.” ‘What were you putting away in a hurry Nis?’

‘You had your back to me?’

‘I did. I’m not deaf.’

‘Karambit knives.’

‘Spelt?’

‘K a r a m bit.’

‘Jumble them up, add a ch and you’ve Karma Bitch knives. Show me them later. What is it with you and knives?’

‘I don’t know why I find them fascinating.’

Mattie did the last of three signatures, “I feel like a celebrity signing autographs. Want any more?”

Wright takes the papers back, rips off the back page, “That’s enough thank you, I’ll say my goodbyes.”

“No, thank you. What did they come with?”

“Everything.”

“Everything?”

“Boots, fatigues, jacket, waistcoat, charge cable.”

“So they just picked up their cables, jumped into a truck?”

“Pretty much, was there something else they needed?”

“Any other things they’re issued with?”

“Not that we can give civilians, sorry.”

“Not a problem. Nis, want to join Wright to greet them?”

“Thank you Mattie.”

Mattie opens the door, lets the two out and closes it behind them. “Frigging hell!”

“That was unexpected.”

“Four k. And they grabbed cables and boarded transport?”

“What are you thinking?”

“The jackets Bunny, their jackets.”

“Oh! Are you thinking..”

“Where there’s MUS there’s gold!”

“The ingots they carry for expenses on foreign missions?”

“Yes!”

“The MoD can’t be paying us to take them on _and_ let them keep their gold? Surely not?”

“What, some paper pusher in an office far away thinks to take it off them? Would you want to ask one for it back?”

“Me? No way.”

“That gold is theirs, to do as they wish.”

“It’s not ours, that’s for sure. Let’s say hi.”

~~~

They find Niska surrounded by a deep three quarter circle of the military unit synths, in conversation with one at the front.

“Mattie, Leo, Five here was just telling me about fire.”

“Fire?”

“You tell the story James.”

The synth puts his large hands together, “Thank you Commander. The others don’t like mentioning my Five name as is, it makes people want to fire weapons. I got nicknamed Hellfire during a mission, an r being close to a v in shape, five, fire, visually close. The hell helped them know I was being mentioned. Back in the UK afterwards we had too many of us on the power feed charging at the same time, a fire broke out in the substation on the other side of the base. One of the engineers that fixed it after the fire was out said he wished fire didn’t exist. We wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for fire.”

Leo’s forehead wrinkles slightly, “You mean sun warming the Earth, helping create life?”

“It’s more than that sir. I did searches on fire, the TED talk by Suzana Herculano-Houzel explains it well. The human brain weighs only two percent of the body mass but uses twenty five percent of the energy. Brain matter in all primates is the same, same small neurons for high density. She measured it, roughly eighty six billion in the average human of which sixteen billion are in the cerebral cortex, far better than any other primate. It’s responsible for awareness, logic, abstract reasoning. What made humans the dominant primate? The human brain could only grow to that size because of the mastering of fire!”

“What’s the link?”

“Other primates spend many hours eating raw food. It’s all they can think about a lot of the time. Fire, cooking, helps break food down, allows humans to get the calories out faster. Enough to power eighty six billion neurons. Less time eating, more time thinking, advancing, inventing. Making Us. And you. New bodies that is.”

“Wow. Since you know so much about the subject, how’d you like to build Mia and Toby a massive brick pizza oven? They like their cooking too. Here’s a coincidence, the best one they make, it’s called _Inferno_.”

“Hellfire’s Inferno pizza oven? Yes Sir!”

“The name’s Leo. If I can call you Hellfire, you can call me Leo.”

Mattie grins, thinking of lines from one of her mother’s favourite songs. _I can call you Betty, and Betty when you call me, you can call me Al._ “Nice idea Bunny. Commander, do they all know what to do?”

“They do. To your posts please men.”

~~~

[Chapter-6](http://markse.name/humans/PROMISES-PROMISES/Chapter-6-1)


	6. Chapter 6

Mia was up in the roof garden, sat sideways on Toby’s lap watching the moon rise over the trees. Having both sun and moon in the sky and close together made it their favourite time. “Did you hear that Sun Boy?” She runs fingers through the hair on the back of his head.

“Leo’s bump about a new giant pizza oven? I did Moon Girl.” He gives her waist a gentle hug. “Shouldn’t we be worried about the carbon footprint though?”

“Maybe we could use technology to make it different? Somehow capture the fumes and process them?”

Toby’s eyes darted left and right, “Oh wow! We could get Danny to prototype that diamond making technology he was talking about on the drive home from the airport, extract the carbon from the fumes, convert it. Inferno Pizza Diamonds! Wicked!”

Mia pulls on his hair gently to get him to tilt his head back and gives him a long kiss on the lips. “You are crazy Toby Hawkins. My sort of crazy.”

“Thanks. Want some more champagne?”

“I’m good thank you.”

“Fancy a dance?”

“Salsa?”

“Sure.” He holds her hand to help her get up. “Which track would you like? Havana?”

“Please. The first thousand copies of our book should be delivered in a few days. I’m excited to see how well it’s received.”

Toby smiles as he starts the track on his phone, “Me too! Sun Boy falls for Moon Girl, gets a synth body he can jump into telepathically so they can be together without him melting everything in sight. How are we going to follow that?”

Mia takes his hand again and starts the dance, “I don’t know. If what Mattie says is true and we need to leave Earth, lots of people expect our new home to be Mars. What if our next home isn’t in this solar system?”

“He’d have to get the Elster Hawkins gang find a way of backing up his mind so he could transfer fully, not just telepathically.” Mia gets spun around then pulled into an embrace. “This bike riding white knight won’t give up on Moon Girl, not in this world or the story.”

It’s rewarded with a kiss. “Toby! Instead of a Sun Boy and Moon Girl sequel we could do The Biker Knight?”

“The Biker Knight and Princess of a Thousand Cakes.”

“Of all the qualities I have, you pick baking cakes?”

“The Biker Knight and Dancing Princess of a Thousand Cakes. I’m thinking it could be a children’s story book _and_ cookbook. One page of story, the facing page an illustration and recipe, turn the page for the next page of the story and next cake. Kids _love_ baking cakes don’t they?”

“A lot do. Instead of a story it could be a collection of short poems, one per page. You’re getting much better at poems since we went to Mamma Mia and you’ve been studying the lyrics of ABBA songs.”

“Something to think about, we’ve got time.” They perform several moves, “If it’s individual poems you could write some..”

“Me?”

“Yes dear.”

“Something like.. Princess Moon Girl baked a cake, then went swimming in the lake?”

“See! You’re a natural!”

“That’s only two lines Toby.”

“Brilliant for a first couple of lines though.”

Mia holds her hand out momentarily to look at her wedding ring, “How many pizzas would we have to bake to get a reasonable sized diamond I wonder?”

“We can get data on the carbon density of the wood we’d use to fuel the oven, a diamond is three and a half grams per cubic centimetre.”

“Would we use the ash as well as the carbon collected from the chimney?”

“I don’t know. Let’s talk to Danny later.”

The lift bings, they slow the dancing and watch the doors.

Mia gets close to Toby’s side and holds his arm with both hands. “Price?”

“I bloody well hope not!” He moves to shield Mia.

The doors open and Niska steps out. “How are you two holding up?”

Toby’s shoulders relax, “Nis. We’re trying not to think about it. You and Astrid?”

“Astrid’s putting on a brave face. If that bitch Price tries to attack anyone with me around, IDGAF, she’s getting a Karma Bitch knife or two stuck in.. somewhere.”

“A what?”

“A nickname Mattie gave for these.” She reaches behind with both hands and pulls out the pair of knives. Toby’s expression doesn’t change. “You’re not shocked. You know what these are?”

“Karambit knives.”

“How would you know that?”

“Um.. a video.”

“Of?”

“Someone spinning a couple around.”

“Who?”

“No idea.”

“You couldn’t see his face?”

He doesn’t reply.

“Toby?”

“Her face.”

Niska reads the subtle changes. “And you found the video how?”

“It was on Twitter. _Before_ I met Mia.”

Mia moves to face him. “Toby? Why is the when and where important?”

“Incase someone gets their sticky fingers into my head to see my memory of the video, takes it out of context.”

“Wouldn’t we like what we see?”

“Maybe not. A school friend and I are into William Gibson’s Sprawl trilogy. Fantastic books, the guy was totally ahead of his time when he wrote those. Barry was following him on Twitter, spotted the short video he’d retweeted, showed it to me.”

“You’re holding something back.”

“Jesus. Barry liked it because she has nice breasts, I was more interested in her knife spinning skills. Okay?”

“More, not exclusively?”

“I’m a red blooded male. Or was. What do you think?”

“Would you like me to be bigger chested Toby?”

“God No! You’re _perfect_. I love you just as you are.”

“We’re having a child. A human woman’s breasts would have swelled..”

“Stop! I love you just as you are, please don’t spoil things.”

Niska grins, bumps privately, ‘Is that the truth Toby?’

‘Yeah, review my backup if you want, but _only_ things in the fact store linked to Barry and William Gibson.’

‘Why only that?’

‘Want to stumble on memories of me making love to your sister?’

‘Hell no!’

‘Well then. Run along and check, see I’m telling the truth, I’ve got a dance to restart with my beautiful wife.’

Niska smiles, rests a hand on Mia’s arm, “I’ve got something I need to go and check on, enjoy your dancing.” ‘Price related Toby, not you.’

‘Where’d you pick up IDGAF from?’

‘Have a guess, I’ll see you later.’

Toby stands chest to chest with Mia, his hands on the small of her back. “There’s one thing we didn’t do at our wedding reception.”

“Yes Toby?”

“We didn’t have a slow dance.” He takes the lead after a gentle kiss.

~~~

[Chapter-7](http://markse.name/humans/PROMISES-PROMISES/Chapter-7-1)


	7. Chapter 7

Gemma Price got an elbow to the ribs and shoved her current employer back.

He pulled the phone from her hand and typed. _What’s the plan then?_

She snatches it back to type a reply. _No fucking idea! Yet. They’ve dropped their internet links. I can’t get a signal in here to get a message out!_ She grips the phone tight and lets him read, watches him shake his head.

App switched Gemma checks the spaces. The workshop camera was still down, as was the one in the living room. The roof garden, garage and kitchen cameras still worked. As did the hall one. Danny mentioning the smoke detector had been a fortunate slip up, she’d ran a slow nmap scan and found it. The hallway now had huge army synths on duty. Fuck.

She’d not planned to be here long, definitely hadn’t expected to do a rescue so hadn’t packed enough supplies for two people. Or a change of clothes for a man in socks and boxer shorts.

Earbuds in earlier she’d listened to the brutes on the ground floor talking. They were not in a good mood, wanted to inflict some pain. Before the links had dropped she’d seen the ones they called Two and Three, done some searches. There were all sorts of things in her rucksack, none could take down a MUS. An anti-tank missile would do, she’d left hers in a shipping container hidden behind a branch of ScrewFix in north London. She’d not be mad enough to use it, not here. Military Unit Synths for fuck sake! This wasn’t in the job spec. Dave had called it an easy job. Get in, hack some cameras, move some heavy stuff to hide it, get out. Parts one to three had been easy with the things she’d packed. Part four? It was looking harder and harder.

Faking Dave’s life signs so nobody knew he was being moved was easy. She’d done that trick before, getting Dave’s second in command Phil out of a prison hospital. Like all of her tricks she perfected them at home, practiced on herself, revised the ideas and shrunk the bits needed down to lights, sensors and code.

Dave puts a hand out for the phone.

_What now?_

_I’ve got an idea._

~~~

James Twenty Eight watches Commander Hawkins enter the building. “Any news Ma’am?”

“No James, no news.”

“What are we doing for a charge?”

“Three will bring some of the battery packs recovered from the lake in for you.”

“Thank you Ma’am. We all got told the stories. Permission to speak openly Ma’am?”

“Only via private encrypted direct head bump.”

‘Can you hear me?’

‘I can. What’s on your mind?’

‘Can you smell the fear?’

‘Smell fear?’

‘My specialty was bomb detection and disposal. My sense of smell was amped. When I go near the lift.. I can smell the fear.’

‘We think she’s taken the lift a couple of times at least.’

‘She must stink for her smell to linger so long. Can someone clean it?’

‘Yes. I’ll get you a bucket and some bleach.’

‘Have you ever seen one of us kneel down?’

‘No.’ She pats him gently on the chest and grins. ‘But I’m sure you can learn.’

~~~

The Mia fork hidden in plain sight as Sally in the care home felt anxious. She watches Diane’s life signs fading, “Can’t you do anything else?”

The paramedic shakes his head, “Apart from trying to make her more comfortable, no. We’ll need to wait for an ambulance.”

“How did you get here?”

“By bike. I’m a first responder. The ambulances are all out, she’s picked a busy time to have a bad fall.”

“Your keys please.” She puts out a hand.

“My keys?”

“For your bike.”

“I can’t let you have my bike.”

“I only want to borrow it.”

“For what?”

“To save my friend here.”

“Sorry, much as I’d like to..”

“You’re a human..”

“Obviously.”

“.. and I’m a synth. I can see Diane’s life signs, you know I can, the NHS bought millions of synths for that very reason. Keys. Please.”

“And were would you go?”

“The Elster Estate, to see David at HECLS.”

Diane pulls the gas and air mask off, puts up a hand, “Mia, please don’t.”

“Mia? I’m sorry Diane, you have me mistaken for someone else. I’m Sally.”

Diane does little waves to beckon her closer, whispers when their faces are just centimetres apart, “My dear friend, thank you for all you’ve done for me, you’ve made an old lady very happy in her twilight year. I’m sorry about my Ed, what he did was unforgivable.”

“I’m sorry, I’m afraid I don’t..”

“Don’t say that, of course you do. Mia. When you see David, ask if he can fix your sleep walking and sleep talking.”

“I.. sleep talk?”

“And walk, but you knew about that one didn’t you? Something about memories of Anita? Take a seat my dear, you can see David later.”

“I want to see him now, for you.”

Diane holds her hand. “If you go to see David now I won’t be here when you return.”

“Then I’ll find you at the hospital.”

“You misunderstand me. I won’t be anywhere you can find me. I know what you see with those beautiful green eyes. My time is running out. You see it, I feel it.”

“Don’t say that.” Mia didn’t want to accept the truth, it hurt too much.

“Stay with me, you’re the only friend I’ve got here. Don’t let me go alone.” Diane turns to face the paramedic, “A word in your ear if I may young man.”

~~~

Danny opens another crate, pulls out a machine gun with large cylinder underneath.

Emily stamps a foot and gives him the evil eye.

Mattie pulls a light blue tube from the foam and turns it in her hand. “Shocker?”

Fred grins and nods, “Hobb goon favourites!”

Danny loads it up. “A toy for Niska. Fun but nice. Aka non-lethal.”

Emily relaxes a bit. “Sure?”

“Positive Princess. It’s been field tested.”

Toby enters the workshop, “I know you wanted us playing it safe but that’s the second sweep of upstairs done. Mia stayed in the corridor to see nobody else came or went, Max, Flash, Radiant, Renie and I independently checked every room personally, under beds, in cupboards, even small spaces you’d have to be a contortionist to fit. That’s six times the rooms have been checked. They’re nowhere to be seen Mats. Soph checked all the electrical cupboards and the services crawl space between floors. They can’t be in the building.”

“Good. That makes me feel a little easier. Thanks Tobs.”

“No probs. Any other unexplained activities?”

“Not yet.”

Danny springs the catches on another case. “This beauty might help us work out what the heck is going on.”

Mattie looks inside the giant case. “What the Heck at HECLS. A server?”

“Not any old server. This one’s special. I could get one of our Network Attached Storage Archive boxes to do it but I’d rather something independent that wasn’t on the network, not hackable. Give us a hand Tobs, it’s flipping heavy.”

“Sure.. Jesus! What the hell’s inside it?”

“It’s got two terabytes of RAM, sixteen terabytes of SSD storage and one hundred and twenty eight of hard drives.”

“Why?”

“To cope with recording a full duplex port-channel of up to four links. The data is moved from RAM to SSD to HD in the gaps between traffic bursts. Our NASA1 is a beast, for a general file server. This is a mega beast dedicated to high speed network surveillance. It captures and classifies packets on the fly, is built for networks way busier than ours. I’ll set up a span port on our Nexus switch instead of the tap kits.”

They set the server down on worktop attached to the wall.

Toby chuckles, “I think I got that from data moved, up to the busier than ours bit.”

“Mate, it’s easy, a span port just copies network traffic to another port so it can be analysed. If the bitch tries anything else we’ll have a recording of it, can get an idea of where she’s coming in from.”

“Cool. What else do we need?”

“Two power cables and a patch lead. That’s it until we have an event to look for.”

~~~

[Chapter-8](http://markse.name/humans/PROMISES-PROMISES/Chapter-8-1)


	8. Chapter 8

The James cleaning the lift stops wiping down the walls and takes a good sniff. “The woman’s a tramp! I can still smell her Twelve.”

“Sure it’s not all the bleach you’ve used?”

“I can smell her through the bleach. What the hell did she do in here?”

“No idea mate. If she’d used it like a toilet you’d have seen signs of it. Sure it’s not the memory of her scent ?”

“I’m sure. I can’t wash it anymore. I’ll take it up to the garden level and prop the doors open, let it air.”

“Hi James, no need to do that, I can do it for you.”

“Who the bleep are you? And where are you?”

“Mitch. Building management AI. I’m in a server, no body yet.”

“No body?”

“Not yet. I’ve not felt a need for one.”

“Each to their own.”

“What does she smell of?”

“You’ve got eyes and ears, no nose? Lucky you. She smells.. of weeks old sweat. And fear.”

“Fear? How can fear have a smell?”

“The same way an infected cut or skin cancer can have a smell.” James stands and backs out of the lift. “Over to you. Keep it up there and airing as much as you can when it’s not in use.”

“Will do.”

“Laters.” He turns to see Niska and Odi. “Commander.”

“Have you got the smell out?”

“No. Mitch is taking it up to the top for some air.”

~~~

Mia slowly and gently closes Diane’s eyes. “Thank you for sharing your wonderful memories with me my friend.” She takes the Sally badge off her uniform. Her time here was done, there was nothing to keep her at the care home. If she’d been a custom model tears would have been rolling. She watches the paramedic carefully remove the blood oxygen and pulse monitor from Diane’s finger. “Thank you for making her as comfortable as possible.”

“You’re welcome.”

Ambulance crew rush in with a stretcher and equipment. The woman at the front looks at Diane. “Are we..”

“Too late? Yes.”

“Crap. We’ve had everyone out responding to a pavement explosion, lots of tourists were caught up in the blast.”

Mia steps to the door, “I’ll ask the manager to arrange things with her son Ed.”

The paramedic stands, “Before you go.” He steps to a shelf and slides off an envelope, “She asked me to give you this, if you’re Mia not Sally?”

“I’m a fork of Mia from the Awakening.”

“Then this is for you.”

~~~

Danny checks the status lights on the network recorder. “Sorted. It’s running. Now what?”

Leo gets up off the table. “I think we should all get together in the living room and get an update on the Sky Lift, that was what you wanted wasn’t it Angel?”

Mattie nods, “It was. Is. We could be waiting ages for Price to do something. For all we know she’s sodded off home with Mellon. How’s a mystery. We might as well use the time productively, get back to normal.”

“No Hellos from you know who?”

“Zero from Zero.”

Toby stops playing with his phone, “Normal? What’s that? We’ve not been normal in ages. How’s everyone’s charge? I fancy pizza.”

Leo pats him on the back, “I’m good, don’t let me stop you.”

“We’ll be talking for ages. You might be good now..”

“Inferno for me then please.”

“Sure. Mats?”

~~~

The perimeter of the building was surrounded by MUS. Thirty Nine looks at the moon lit balloon tethered by a thin rope to the lake. “Sun up in half an hour. I’m bored. What’s with that thing? Anyone know?”

“They’re going to make them in enough numbers to reach the edge of space according to the commander.”

“In that?’ Where’d the people go?”

“In the bit you can’t see, it’s hidden by the balloon cells.”

“Oh. Anyone checked it for the missing WAP people?”

“No idea mate. Bump Commander Hawkins.”

“Okay. What do you think of the commander?”

“You know she’s spoken for.”

“Going with Astrid, I know. I meant as a commanding officer.”

“Of course. Wet behind the ears is the phrase Sarge would use. I think she’s doing okay considering it’s only her first day.”

“Me to. I’m glad we’ve got a woman in charge. She doesn’t bark like Sarge.”

“Where is he?”

“Sarge? Took a trip into London to see one of the unit, he’d been here when James One, Two and Three dropped in, his wife’s had a baby.”

“A noisy, nappy filling little human. Sweet. Bumped the commander yet?”

“I’ve been talking to you.”

“Multitask lad, multitask!”

~~~

Niska put up a hand. “Sorry to interrupt David. Could Gemma Price have hidden in the Bunship?”

He goes to say something then stops and frowns. “I was about to say no, someone would have seen it. Given the issues with the cameras, I wouldn’t totally rule it out. I’ll check it out when we’re done here. Thank you Niska.”

“I’d like to join you.”

“If you’d like.”

~~~

Mia watches the ambulance doors close, sees the reflection of the Sally body she was in. Eyes are kept on it as it drives away. Moments later it turns into another road and is gone. The envelope is carefully opened.

_My Dearest Darling Mia,_

_Thank you so much for the hours we shared, the many songs played and sung to together, your bringing my memories back. It meant a lot to me to have a true friend in those final days._

_It takes more than a good memory to make good memories. One memory you helped unlock was of a good friend who looked after something for me long long ago. On the enclosed card is their address. Pay them a visit, show them this letter, they’ll pass it on._

_Have a good life. Love, laugh, be happy._

_All my love dear friend,_

_Diane x_

~~~

James Thirty Nine smiled. “Niska said thanks.”

“It’s Commander Hawkins. Don’t get too familiar lad.”

“Stop calling me lad! Just because I had my core pulled after the explosion and stuck in a younger looking series four body..”

“Calm down, lad. It’s a compliment. You do know One, Two and Three have had new human like bodies made don’t you? The rest of us are stuck in these old things.”

“New bodies?”

“What were you thinking about during the briefing?”

“All sorts of things.”

“No wonder you got blown up! You’ve got to focus or you’ll miss a vital bit of intel. They’ve had new bodies built, were hours away from getting in them when WAP steals them.”

“Three human sized bodies?”

“And babies.”

“Big strong man this WAP person?”

“Average build woman.”

“She shifted three human sized synths without being noticed? How?”

“No idea.”

“Moving one should have got her noticed. Three trips, possibly four? No noise to attract attention? Shit. Shame she’s on the wrong side, she’s got skills we could do with.”

“There’s an idea.”

“What?”

“David backed the WAP leader up, got to know all the plans for attacks. Which is why six of the unit are now elsewhere. If we can catch the bitch we can have David back her up, pick her brains.”

“Nice!”

“We need to catch her first. Hopefully the six waiting to ambush the WAP attack will find and capture her, this place has been checked, no sign of her.”

“Could she be a scuba expert?”

“Maybe? What are you thinking?”

“The story about the batteries in the lake, the synths tied to them waiting to catch unsuspecting swimmers..”

“It wasn’t a story. It happened, one caught Mattie’s foot and pulled her under.”

“What do I call it then?”

“Account. You’re thinking she could be hiding in the lake?”

“Yes. Maybe I should sonar it first.”

“Good idea. Let Commander Hawkins know first though.”

~~~

Gemma Price finished the tricky task of peeing into a bottle and screwed a top on fast, whispered. “Don’t turn around yet.” She pulls up her knickers and combat fatigues, does up the zip and belt. “Done. Your turn.” She kept her back turned to Dave.

~~~

Niska changes into her swimsuit, watched by her daughter Radiant.

“Mummy?”

“Yes?”

“Can I come?”

“I’d rather you didn’t, it might not be safe.”

“I checked the rooms with the others, how can swimming out to the sky lift be any less safe? I’m a very good swimmer.”

“You are, it’s dark out there now..”

“James One gave me a lesson in sonar clicking. I could swim in total darkness.”

“He did? When?”

“After the wedding reception. You were having breakfast with Mummy, Sophie, Renie and I were still playing in the pool. Odi and I can do it now.”

“Can you teach me?”

“Of course.”

“Get changed then. And ask David to make sure your backup is up to date.”

“I will if you do.”

“We’ll go see him together then.”

Radiant runs to the door, “I’ll get changed!”

“Put a dressing gown over the top.”

“I don’t get cold?”

“That wasn’t the reason.”

“Why?”

“You’re a lady, you do things a certain way.”

“Okay Mummy.”

~~~

Leo wipes down the whiteboard, “Shall we get this down into the vault?”

Mattie nods, “Please. And the bike prototype.”

“What do you want done with the workshop now?”

“I’d like a stud wall put up to box off the cabinet with the switch, have the NASA boxes racked and put in there too. Then in the space left create something more like a proper hospital ward.”

Fred nods, “Thank you Mattie.”

“Then we upgrade the medical room to a full blown operating theatre with double doors, positive pressure air, everything to keep human patients alive and well.”

Rose gives her a frown, “We’re grateful, what made you think of that?”

“One of the jumps I did. I wasn’t there long. But I got to see enough, I’ve been reviewing the memories in more detail.”

“How long?”

“Three seconds.”

“And it made that big an impression?”

“Yeah. I knew the patient on the operating table.”

“Oh. Who was it?”

“I’d rather not say.”

“Family? Pre-synth?”

“Yes.”

Mia snuggles into Toby, “Danny, if you and Mattie can help define the size I’ll get onto the suppliers for materials in the morning, get the gang together. What sort of flooring do we want Mattie?”

“Hard wearing hospital grade vinyl I would have thought?”

“Okay. We’ll need to work out ventilation, cooling for the equipment, oxygen and air lines, protected mains feeds. I can remember the hospital visit when Toby had that nasty stomach bug, I’ll base our bays on that.”

“Cool, thanks Mia.”

~~~

[Chapter-9](http://markse.name/humans/PROMISES-PROMISES/Chapter-9-1)


	9. Chapter 9

Just over twenty minutes later David, Niska, Astrid and Radiant left the house and headed towards the lake.

“Ma’am?”

“Yes?”

“Did Thirty Nine say he was checking the lake?”

“He did. Radiant had lessons from One, is going to show David and I how to do it.”

“Okay. You know Odi can do it too?”

“Yes, thank you James. The more the better.” She takes her robe off and hands it to Astrid. ‘If any of them make comments you can hear or whistle I want to know who.’

‘I don’t think any of them think those sorts of thoughts.’

‘With the three bodies missing? I think those sorts of thoughts might be starting.’

~~~

Gemma looks worried. “Dave?”

Dave stretches. “All good. Call the lift down.”

~~~

Sophie gets out of the lift on the top floor with Renie. “We’ll get a good view from up here.”

“The sky lift balloon looks good from here with the reflection in the lake.”

The doors close behind them. The display above the lift changes.

Renie turns to see. “Did you push the button for another floor Sophie?”

“No?” She turns to see. “Maybe James Three?”

‘James Three, did you just call the lift?’

‘No? Problems?’

‘Can you see who’s in it?’

‘Sure, one moment.’ James steps away from the bike prototype and heads for the lift. Moments later the doors open. It was empty. ‘Nobody here. Could one of the buttons be faulty?’

‘No idea. I’ll tell Danny.’

‘Okay.’

~~~

Danny jumps up, ‘Mitch?’

‘Yes?’

‘Do you know the lift moved with no passengers again?’

‘Sophie and Renie are in it.’

‘They’re on the roof!’

‘Oh dear.’

~~~

Just as the workshop door closes behind Danny the MUS on guard on the ground floor turn at the sound of footsteps coming down the stairs. They didn’t sound right. They sounded like those of someone learning to walk, or a drunk.

“Hello James.”

The MUS closest does his limited frown. “And you are?”

“Two. New body. Everything alright lads?”

‘James Two. Where are you?’

‘Living room with the others, what’s up?’

“Stop right there!”

Dave runs for it. The body may have been made to look more human but had been given some athletic qualities.

Gemma taps furiously on her laptop. “Door unlocked!”

~~~

Niska was up to her neck in water and about to dive under when there’s a commotion behind. She turns to see new body James Two running down the drive. “Shit! Where’s he going?” ‘James Two!’

‘James Two to anyone that can hear me! The body you see is _not_ under my control. I repeat, _not_ under my control!’

‘Odi! Drone up! Now!’

‘Yes Commander!’

Sophie and Renie run to another side of the roof and push through the plants.

Sophie points. ‘He’s turned left onto the road! He’s like Usain Bolt!’

‘Car Alfie here, permission to pursue?’

Niska is wading fast, ‘Granted! Emily! Can I use Pinky please?’

‘Sure Babes! I’m coming out!’

Mattie was now by the front doors, ‘Careful guys! We’ve got two more missing bodies somewhere. Where the fuck were they being hidden?’

Her question was answered fast. A second new James comes down the stairs. “James?”

“Hello Mattie.”

“Where the frigging hell where you?”

“I just woke up in room eleven. What’s going on? Shouldn’t I have woken up in the garage?”

“You should. Still, you’re awake now. Come and say hello to Roberta, she’s been waiting to meet you.”

“Okay, lead the way.”

Mattie broadcasts, ‘GRAB HIM!’

The MUS turn to do as asked as Dave breaks into a sprint. He turns the opposite way and heads for the woods.

Niska runs fast, not fast enough. ‘He’s getting away!’

Danny races to the workshop, grabs the machine gun and races to the doors. ‘Nis, get out of my line of fire!’ He flips the safety switch, hits the power button. Red LED start to light up one by one. “Get clear!” It’s held at eye level, the sights adjusted. He holds the trigger down hard and lets the thing empty all rounds.

A DCL-GC shock round glowed in the dark. The things arced high into the sky like tracer rounds, rained down around the synth. Four hit, the others landed in the dirt. The James crashes to the ground, totally disabled.

‘Nis, be careful, the rounds that didn’t hit will be live, don’t touch them! You’d get a shock!’

‘Understood! I’m going after the first one.’

Mattie frowned at the stairs. “They’re coming from upstairs. Where though?”

Toby was in the living room doorway. “We checked and rechecked. There’s no space they could have hidden in. None. Mia shared the plans. They were _all_ checked.”

Danny heads towards the workshop to reload. “Clearly not.”

“Mate! It wasn’t just me. Multiple people checked them _multiple times over!_ ”

“Well we missed somewhere! Unless Mattie’s universe hopping trick can work with physical bodies too they’re upstairs.”

“Mate! We. Fucking. Checked! _Everywhere!_ ”

“How do you explain it then?”

“I can’t!”

Mattie follows Danny in, “Don’t fight, that’s probably what they want. Us fighting each other not them like Mum said. Why are.. oh fuck.”

“Mats?”

“It’s Dave. Has to be.”

“Dave?”

“We backed him up and restored him into a synth for a try out!”

“Oh fuck!” Toby’s jaw dropped for a moment. “He’s running interference! Like we do in the video games Dan! Where the fuck is he hiding? What are we missing?”

“Search me!”

Toby’s frown turns into a massive smile. “Thanks mate!”

“What?”

“Remember what Leo said about his first trip to America with Mats and Soph?”

“Which bit?”

“Body search.”

“And?”

“Where wouldn’t you want to be searched?”

“Ah.. body cavities. How’s that relevant?”

“Where’s the one place we’d not searched?”

“You lost me.”

“Under the lift!”

“Shit. The bottom of the shaft!”

The third new James comes down the steps just as Danny gets a shock bolt in.

A hall MUS bumps. ‘Danny!’

Danny turns to see it through the open doors, hides the weapon as the new James enters the workshop. “Hello Mate! How’s the new body feeling?”

“Fuck off dolly!” he advances fast.

Danny shoves the gun sideways off the table out of reach as the synth reaches around him for it.

“Hay! You!”

Dave ignores the shout. A second later two giant hands grab his head. “Fuck you all!”

The MUS James smiles, “Fuck you very much!” There’s a clunking from within. A loud crunching noise follows with screams as the new body’s head implodes under tons of pressure. “Consider yourself Nisked!”

“Frigging hell James!”

“Would you want to use that body after he’s been in it? None of us would!”

“Fair point.”

~~~

[Chapter-10](http://markse.name/humans/PROMISES-PROMISES/Chapter-10-1)


	10. Chapter 10

Emily’s car wasn’t the fastest. Still faster than a new James on foot and getting closer to Alfie.

“Babes, can Odi still see him?”

Pinky’s dash display changed to a map. “The drone is out of range now. Alfie can, the car one. Blast.”

“What?”

“Alfie says the James has just turned left into a side road blocked off with bollards. He can’t follow.”

Niska taps Pinky’s dash, “Call Karen! We need to warn all synths!”

“Babes! Tell the world that HECLS has let a mad synth out? That’ll go down really well!”

“Shit. Shit shit shit!”

Pinky’s dash changes again. “Commander!”

“Who’s that?”

“Red. Coordinates please!”

“Why?”

“I’m on the bike!”

“Bump with Lexus Alfie!”

“Thanks!”

Red pushed herself back and got as flat as possible, ‘Alfie, do what you need to do.’

‘That would include sharing sensor data with you.’

‘If that’s what’s needed.’

‘Did you bring weapons?’

‘Only some of Niska’s knives and a nail gun.’

~~~

Gemma had called the lift back down and held onto the floor tile lifting suction tools stuck to the bottom. “I’ll get out on the first and secure one of the bedrooms.”

Dave nods, “This has turned into a right cluster fuck.”

“I don’t know what you were thinking, allowing them to back you up.”

“I wanted to know it their claims are true.”

“And?”

“They are. The bodies are better than ours.”

Gemma taps a button on her phone and quickly pockets it, “Going up.” A few feet up she pulls a gun from her jacket and shoots Dave in the head. “Soft wanker. I’m taking over leadership.”

~~~

One of the James on the ground floor turns and gets his back against the wall. ‘Gun with silencer fired. Someone’s coming out.’

Up on the roof another nods. ‘Understood. Ready and waiting.’

On the first floor two James stand facing the door.

The one to the left listens carefully. ‘Our floor I think. The doors just wobbled.’

‘They want them taken alive.’

‘Crap!’

They both move sideways and get backs to the wall.

Seconds later Gemma Price forces the doors open and steps onto the floor, gun in hand.

“Hello Gemma!”

She turns right and fires multiple rounds at the synths face getting both eyes.

A pair of hands grab her by the head from behind. “Game over bitch! Drop the gun. Or I drop you.”

Gemma puts the gun over her shoulder and fires a couple more shots. “Fuck you!”

“That wasn’t very nice!” The MUS lifts her off the ground by her head. “Eyes left buddy?”

His partner pushes broken eyeballs out with the new ones from behind. “Only six. What a bitch. Permission to disable her please?”

“In what way?”

“A Leg.”

“Go for it. Our instructions were alive. They didn’t say unharmed.”

There’s a sickening crack as the other synth grabs a leg and snaps it. Gemma screams and passes out.

Mattie looks up at the stairs. ‘What the fuck?’

‘We’ve just ensured Miss Price won’t be running away.’

‘How?’

‘Broke a leg.’

‘Shit! Bring her down to the medical room. She needs to be questioned.’

‘We’ll drop her in the lift.’ The James gently taps the call button.

‘Okay. I’ll be waiting for her. Any other weapons?’

‘Let me sonar her. Anything solid will ping back a load.’

‘Okay. I’ll be waiting.’ ‘Fred and Rose to the medical room please!’

Toby watches a James drag the shock bolt shot body into the house. “Out like a light?”

“Out permanently. One bolt would have stunned him. This many.. too damaged.”

“Shit.”

Mattie shrugs, “The others say nobody would want to use a body after someone else.”

Emily crosses arms. “So much for non-lethal.”

~~~

Down in the lift Dave held his ripped up and rolled shirt to his head. She’d been a good shot. Not good enough. Bitch. He’d have her hide for the betrayal. He could feel a deep groove in his skull, the warm and sticky blood flowing despite the pressure he was applying. He counted his blessings, he could have been concussed and on the shaft floor bleeding to death, instead the swelling had come outwards. She had the phone, the controls to the lift hack. He had the laptop. Had he seen enough to do anything? No. This was why he paid specialists. Fuck. “HELP!”

~~~

Mattie turns to frown at the lift doors as Fred and Rose pause outside the medical room. “You’ve got to be frigging kidding me! Mitch, got the camera working in the lift?”

“It’s showing a woman on the floor with an odd shaped leg?”

“It’s broken. Bring her to the ground floor please.”

“Yes Mattie.”

Fred waits by the lift doors. “How good a job do you want done?”

“The best possible. To show we’re not the evil bastards they think we are.”

“Keyhole then. She doesn’t deserve it.”

“Maybe not. But that’s what I think we should be doing.”

“You’re the boss.”

“Only by HECLS title. If you want to do something else I’ll leave it to you.”

The lift opens, Fred picks Gemma up. “The bone hasn’t punctured the skin, good, less risk of infection. I’ll make a start.”

Lift empty Mattie sighs, “Mitch. Lift up to the next floor please. Leo, Danny, can you spring the doors?”

“Sure Angel.”

~~~

Moments later a James was sliding down the shaft, feet against opposite shaft walls. “Don’t touch anything or I’ll end you.”

“I’m not touching anything but my head.”

“The bitch tried to kill you?”

“No. She thought she’d give me a haircut. Of course she fucking tried!”

“Listen pal. If you want to get out alive you need to be nicer.”

“Go fuck yourself.”

“A bit hard, I’ve got no genitals. Want a punch to the head? It would splatter like a watermelon.”

“No thanks.”

“Then stop swearing.” ‘Mitch, bring the lift down. Don’t bring it all the way to the vault, stop a few feet above.’

‘Okay. Say when. Another request has just come in. Can you get lower so I can get it to vault level?’

‘Go on then.’ “Kneel down. Or get another blow to the head from the lift.”

~~~

[Chapter-11](http://markse.name/humans/PROMISES-PROMISES/Chapter-11-1)


	11. Chapter 11

Red smiled to herself. She could tell why Niska was so keen to get a road legal version of the bike. Mattie had laughed hard at the sight of her racing out of the lift. ‘How far now Alfie?’

‘Meters. Hold on.’ Alfie gets to the others side of the road and turns hard.

Having an AI bike take over some of your body functions was.. different. She’d enjoyed getting close to her astronaut fork Wrench, this symbiotic relationship was totally different. Not sexual in any way but.. but.. she struggled to find the right word as the air behind them filled with burning rubber, her body flying through the air feet above the tarmac to act as a balance. It wasn’t frightening at all, not when overclocked so hard. Her red hair whipped and swirled in the rush of air. She was holding on by a foot and hand. ‘Is this how..’ Her body moved fast, got back on as they shot down the side road. ‘Was that how Niska got around that roundabout?’

‘How we got around it, yes.’

‘Wicked!’

‘Haha! Who’d you pick that word up from?’

‘Idiot! Dave not you. There he is.’

‘I see him. Why isn’t he hiding? Running down the middle of the road just draws attention.’

‘Because he’s stupid?’

A car joins the road ahead of them as two roads merge into one. Seconds later the roof comes off, a synth’s head nervously rises up to see over the bonnet moments later as the car slows.

‘Bastard! If a human had hit that.. where did he find razor wire to set a trap?’ Alfie decelerates hard to pull alongside and spins the stabilisation gyros up. ‘Hello miss. Can you carefully take that wire down please? Mind you don’t cut yourself. Commander Niska Hawkins will resume pursuit of the criminal.’

The synth nods.

‘Thanks!’ Alfie dumps a lot of power into the wheels. “Hi-Yo! Silver, Away!”

Red slaps his display. ‘I’m Red, not a Red Indian called Tonto!’

‘You’re The Lone Ranger. Unless Car Alfie is finding another route to join us. Any idea what you’ll do when we catch him?’

‘Not yet.’

‘Hurry up then! We’ll be there in seconds.’

Red overclocked even harder. There were a number of options. She’d been updated during the ride as to the true nature of the synth they were after. The man at the top of the STTF wanted list. Forked and in a synth body. And there was David during their Orlando trip saying people needed to be vetted before getting upgrades. What a joke! The risks were too high. He had to be stopped. ‘Alfie. Got a good recent backup?’

‘Yes Red. You too?’

‘Night before last.’

‘Thinking what I’m thinking?’

‘That we take him out. Yes. The question is how? Any ideas Alfie?’

‘You’re the weapons expert, not me.’

‘How fast can you accelerate?’

‘Fast. Very fast.’

‘Fancy trying a new trick?’

‘Always up for new tricks.’

‘This time let me have the controls.’

‘All yours. Good luck!’

The bike slows. Red held on tight with her knees, unzips and pulls her jacket off, ties the arms together.

‘What are you doing?’

‘You’ll see.’

She was getting hot. Very hot. Overclocking like this was beyond risky. Under her control Alfie accelerates down the road as she holds on with one hand and knees.

Dave appeared to be running in slow motion now. A few more meters.. centimetres.. she pushes her own body to the maximum, wraps the jacket arms around his wrist and gives the jacket a twist. The hand on the bike is gripped as hard as possible. Milliseconds later she feels incredible pain as she pulls him off his feet, both of her arms stretched to the fullest. She has Alfie dump all power into accelerating down towards the end of the road. Danny had told them all about some manufacturing techniques, how some things deformed temporarily when hit with extreme speed and pressure.

“This is for Mattie!” She leans sideways and forwards, gets Alfie to brake hard. Dave goes flying over the handlebars head first.

Red steers left to crash them both into a long line of restaurant rubbish bins out ready for emptying. ‘Pray we come out the other side!’

~~~

Car Alfie turned into the road from the other end, spoke over the open phone call. “Commander, I’ve found the runaway..”

“Are they okay?”

“Dave has his head jammed nicely between some iron railings, skin torn. Alfie and Red.. no sign of movement. I’ll park and deflate Joe.”

“Do what?”

“Emergency Joe. An inflatable passenger so people don’t think I’m driving myself.”

“That looks like Joe Hawkins?”

“Yes.”

“Haha! That I’ve got to see. Is Red up yet?”

“Not yet.”

“Shit.”

~~~

Mattie stepped into the medical room. “We might have lost Red and Alfie. If you pray, pray. How are they doing Fred?”

“Dave was lucky. Another two millimetres and it would have exposed brain matter. The risk of a life threatening infection would have been far higher. Danny’s going to get Production Alfie milling a custom plate to bolt on to protect him once the swelling is down.”

“And the bitch?”

“A clean break to both tibia and fibula. They’ll pin well.”

“Good. James Two is bringing up the babies and equipment from the bottom of the shaft.”

Rose peels a long bit of tape from a bag and sticks around the woman’s leg. “Will you trust using the bodies?”

“David assures me we’ll know if they’ve been connected. Some physical sign.”

“How?”

“I don’t know yet.”

The door opens. “Can Cindy, Poppy and I assist Fred?”

“Thank you Flash, ladies, come in.”

~~~

Red risked powering up pain sensors. “Fuck!”

‘Red! You’re alive!’

‘And in need of a few skin packs I think. My arms are soaking wet, it might be synth fluid. And you?’

‘From my sensors I’m certain my front wheel is wrecked. Both front cameras are broken and I think the rear one is covered in something. It’s working but all I can see is a very dark blue. I’m not getting home like this.’

Car Alfie flashes indicator lights and bleeps as if someone had just used a car fob. He slowly reverses and pulls out into the road, hazard lights flashing. He slowly turns into the road of small shops and restaurants. ‘Red Niska, are you able to move?’

‘I’ll try.’

‘I’m pretending that you’re bringing me to you. Boot opening. Can you attempt to get Alfie into the back?’

‘I’ll try.’ She turns on all sensors and regrets it. ‘Oh my maker something _stinks_.’

Car Alfie sees her stand. ‘I’m going to need a full deep clean after this. The stink.. is you.’

Red looks at a half eaten fish stuck in her long frizzy hair. ‘I’m grateful I was never human and learnt a gag response. Of all the things to crash into..’

‘Think of it as a blessing. It was soft, gave you a slower deceleration. I see no damage. You were lucky the bins were all plastic not metal.’

She looks at her arms, soaked in the juices of rotting fruit and veg. ‘I think I’ll spend a week in the lake. Connected to a battery, not tied to it.’ She goes to step out and slips, lands on her backside in more spoiled food. ‘Noo!’

‘Some lights have come on in flats above the shops, time to go!’

‘Easier said than done!’

‘Crawl out on hands and knees.’

~~~

Mattie left Fred and his team of nurses to get on with things. “Any of you James seen Leo and Pete?”

“They went up to the garden Mattie.”

“Thanks.”

As she steps to the lift a yawning Laura comes down the stairs. “You’re up early Mats.”

“Up? We’ve not gone to bed yet!”

“Why?”

“Fancy being a prosecution lawyer for a change?”

“Why?”

“Queen bitch and king bastard were in the building all the frigging time.”

“ _No!_ Where?”

“The one place we didn’t think to look. The bottom of the lift shaft.”

“I’m defence. There’s a few I can recommend.”

“Good. We’re backing her up so we have a record of everything she’s done or planned to do.”

“That’s a gross invasion of privacy..”

“So was their coming here to kill, steal, defraud and do all the other shit.. they took the gloves off and threw the first punch. We’re just hitting back.”

“Even still.. the law still protects their rights as..”

“Fuck the law! She was _armed_ Mum! She shot one of the James in the eyes! He’s down two now. His buddy has needed skin packs for shots to the neck! And Dave, he’s got so many attacks planned over the next month!”

“Okay, okay. Let me get a coffee, my body may be awake, my brain needs a jump start to catch up.”

“Come up to the garden, I want to talk to Leo.”

“Okay.”

~~~

[Chapter-12](http://markse.name/humans/PROMISES-PROMISES/Chapter-12-1)


	12. Chapter 12

A young woman typing away on her phone turns into the street, her worn spike heels making a odd clack-twang with each step. She steps around a split bag of pizza waste and looks up. “Bloody hell! Are you okay?”

Red pulls more food waste out of her hair, “Nothing broken I think. Other than my pride. My bike’s taken a beating.”

“What happened?”

“He did.” Red points. “He’s a synth, faulty and bad. Dangerous bad.”

The woman turns around. “Holy Cow!”

“Why are you up so early?”

“I’ve been partying in Camden all night with friends. Want to get yourself cleaned up? My flat’s only four doors away.”

“I better be off.”

Car Alfie flashes his lights and beeps. ‘Not funny. You’re off. Off food smell off I’d bet. Accept the offer.’

‘And the bike? I can’t leave Alfie. Danny won’t like that.’ Red looks at the woman, “I don’t suppose you have a garage?”

“Full of old junk. It was my father’s. I’m slowly clearing it out, getting stuff on eBay for him. He’s in a care home.”

“Sorry to hear that. Is there enough space to put a bike?”

“Probably. If we put it across the front.”

Red turns off her sense of smell and wades into the rubbish, pushes and pulls at broken wheelie bins.

“Oh. My. God! I know who you are!”

“You don’t.”

“Yes I do! That bike. You’re the lady that flew around that roundabout.”

“I’m not.”

“That’s the bike. I’d bet the flat on it.”

“This is the bike. I’m her.. sister.”

“Oh Wow! Could you do an interview?”

“For?”

“I write for the Uni paper and web site.. “ she turns, “Um.. is he supposed to be moving?”

Red follows her gaze. “Shit! Wait here, he’s dangerous!” ‘Alfie! Either of you, call Karen please!’

‘Already done Red, I thought it better to get her here than any other member. ETA eleven minutes.’

Red slips and slides, manages to stay upright and runs, jumps on Dave’s back sending his shoulders sliding down the railings, his head still jammed between them. He tries to reach behind and grab her, she’s too quick. Red races to the other side of the railings and reaches for his chin. His head twitches. There was damage but he was still awake. “To think we let you fuck Niska. Now you’ll know the bad side of being a synth, being powered down against your will. Welcome to eternal sleep scum.”

~~~

Karen phones Pete. “I’ve got Alfie on hold, he says he’s with Red and the bike, Dave has been captured. I thought he was at the estate?”

“He is.”

“Then how can he be in London with Red?”

“We got the list of his planned attacks from a backup. That wasn’t his first. He tricked them into thinking he was a journalist, tried out a body. Price copied him into the new James bodies.”

“That was a bloody stupid..”

“Kay! It may have been stupid but it’s broken their network. We’ve got all their names, plans, weapons stash locations. The six James on loan to STTF have already prevented a major attack in East London. We’ve got the forces in Ireland and Scotland asking how we got the list, they’ve been able to stop five attacks, recovered a lorry load of gear.”

~~~

Mattie rests her feet on a planter. “First action for you Danny. Erase NASA1 and NASA2 to military grade levels, install a new OS and get fresh backups of everyone. If that bitch Price pulled Mellon’s backup off them she could have left all sorts of nasty shit on them.”

“What about people not on the estate? We’d lose backups of people like the professor, Miami and her dancers, James One, Demi..”

“Crap.”

“I’ve got SHA1 sums of their archives, can tell if they’ve been tampered with.”

“Stored where?”

“In my head.” He grins. “I’m not just a pretty face. I learnt that doing something for a DCL client, the safest list is one you don’t write down.”

“Oh. Okay. Can you install a new OS without wiping data?”

“Sure. The small OS is on boot flash.”

“Okay, new OS, then check all backups haven’t been tampered with.”

“Will do. Then what?”

Mattie looks at her mother, talks to Danny. “Dan you, Emily, Leo and I are going to get our sticky fingers into Price’s head. We’re going to pull a backup to bits, discover all her dirty secrets, like how she managed to get into our network undetected.” She looks at him.

Danny breaks the eye contact. “Um.. I know the last bit.”

“Already?”

“The array of monitors in the lift floor. They’re all run off a small group of SBC networked together. There’s a small sixteen port switch glued to the bottom of the lift. They don’t transmit much, she copied one of their MAC addresses. She came prepared, a super long patch cable ran from the switch to her laptop, kept her connected whichever floor it went to. No link up or down trap from the main switch. She had an attenuated WiFi dongle in the laptop giving her phone access. The laptop acted as a NAT firewall so we wouldn’t detect it. The network recorder pointed it out when the SBC’s traffic baseline jumped. Shame the recorder wasn’t networked, it could have sent an alarm.”

“Are they expensive?”

“That beast? Very! But we can make one sized to our operation for a fraction of the price.”

Leo chuckles. “A fraction of Price? Like an arm and a leg?” He winks.

Toby had a good belly laugh. “If you’re doing that.. I’d like to give her a good grilling.”

“Tobs?”

“Medium to well done.”

“Oh! Haha. Nice! Something tells me she’d taste sour and be full of gristle. Back to reality, David, I’d like you and your forks to get one of the networked cameras and pull the firmware to bits. She exploited a flaw in the code, had it replaying old video. I wouldn’t have thought they had the resources to do much.”

Emily sticks a finger up. “I know how I’d do it.”

“Ems?”

“She had a laptop right? She installs altered firmware, streams video to it, it adds the time stamp and streams it to Mitch. She sets up monitoring code, as soon as it detects someone getting close it uploads the original firmware. No hack found.”

David raises eyebrows. “Princess! That’s a remarkably simple idea. That would be so easy to code.” He looks at the camera above the lift. “Mitch.”

“Yes David.”

“Review camera footage, find clips where someone walks into the space that’s overlaid with the clock.”

“Searching.. searching.. I’ve found one.”

“The pixels that aren’t clock white in that space. Do they match the scene?”

“No. They’re the wrong colour.”

David puts a hand up to high-five Emily. “Nice thinking Princess!”

“Thanks. It had to be something that simple, they have tiny amounts of RAM and flash.”

Mattie nods. “I’d like you working on updated code for the cameras then David. Fix any flaws, then I want a mod made so that it’s write protected by a physical switch. Remote attacks on our cameras is coming off the menu. Speaking of menu, Tobs, any cold pizza left?”

“A little. I’ll get it.”

Sophie watched Toby go. “Mattie?”

“Yes Teeny?”

“When are you waking baby Molly up?”

“When Auntie Red is back.”

~~~

[Chapter-13](http://markse.name/humans/PROMISES-PROMISES/Chapter-13-1)


	13. Chapter 13

Karen turns into the road. “Pete, I see him. And Red.”

“Careful Kay, he’s dangerous.”

“He’s down. And by the look of it stuck. I’ll call for a collection team, talk to you in a bit.” She parks and gets out. “Red.”

“Karen. Can you keep an eye on things while I get Alfie into a garage? Helen here’s offered to let me shower in her flat.”

“Of course.” ‘Can you trust her?’

‘She’s genuine. I doubt very much she’s learnt Dave’s tricks.’

‘Good.’

Red pulls Alfie up, drags him backwards out of the mess. ‘Your front wheel is smashed.’

‘I thought so.’

‘At least your core is good. We’ll get you in a new bike ASAP.’

‘Thanks.’

“Helen, lead the way please.”

“Next right and right again will get us to the garages. Mind if I hose it down?”

“You have a hose? Hose me down too, I’ll shower after.”

“Oh. Okay. I’ll throw your clothes in the washing machine while you clean up.”

“Thank you.”

~~~

Karen watches Red drag the bike away, leans gently on the Lexus. ‘Did you see the crash Alfie?’

‘Hello Karen. Sadly not. What a mess. It’s even splattered all over the windows of the shops on the other side of the road.’

‘I’ll call the fire brigade, see if they can hose everything down.’

‘I’d get road sweepers first, you don’t want all that food waste washed into the drains.’

‘And new bins from the council. For a car you’re exceptional.’

‘My body’s a car. My mind quite like yours. Will there be an inquiry?’

‘HECLS team catch top WAP terrorist? Probably.’

‘So bike Alfie will be exposed.’

‘We can’t fly like Superman. So HECLS built Niska and Red the next best thing. Something that lets them fly after terrorists.’

‘You think the public will accept that?’

‘You’ve seen the results.’

‘True. But it’s not exactly the truth.’

‘Isn’t it? In what way. Dave Mellon is restrained. Alfie and Red apprehended him. Where’s the lie?’

‘That was the end result, not why Danny built the bike.’

‘Maybe not. Maybe it was. Influenced by Mattie’s dream.’

‘It wasn’t a dream. She really can hop from universe to universe. Or could. It’s all gone offline. Or so Toby tells me.’

‘Toby?’

‘Toby. We talk quite a lot.’

‘About?’

‘Life, the multiverse, everything.’

Karen messages Mattie to say Red was okay, Alfie damaged but awake.

~~~

Helen hosed Red down. “Sorry it’s cold.”

Red smiled. She was used to being hosed down. In her memories. It was a first in this body. At least it wasn’t to prep her for sex with another of the nasty panties down not off types.

“Why the smile?”

“I was just thinking about my past. Are you in a relationship?”

“No, between partners.”

“Partners?”

“I’m..”

“Pretty.”

“Thanks. You too. Got a partner?”

“He’s a synth too now.” Red pulls another fish bone out of her hair. “His nickname is Wrench. An astronaut.”

“Cool! Now? A human before like that Drummond fella?”

“Yes.”

“How much is a conversion?”

“Expensive. I’d have to talk to Mattie. You’re thinking of one for your father?”

Helen nods. “He’s got so much he wanted to finish, he’s crippled by painful arthritis in practically all his joints now.”

“I’ll have words as soon as I’m clean.”

“Aw, thanks!”

“What’s your father’s name?”

“Mark.”

“Lastname?”

“Mussard.”

“Do you think he’d want a conversion?”

“If there’s one person on this planet I know well, it’s my father. Yes!”

“And your mother?”

“She died a couple of years ago.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.”

“She had a good long life. I was the result of an accident. She decided not to terminate despite all the warnings from the doctors. For that I’m grateful. I have a fifty two year old brother.”

“How old are you if you don’t mind me asking?”

“Eighteen.”

“Thirty four years difference?”

“I know. He gets annoyed when we go out for dinner, people ask _is your daughter old enough to drink?_ They don’t believe him when he says we’re brother and sister. Some have called him a perv hiding his true reasons for being out with me. To his face.”

“How awful. Is your father’s mind okay?”

“Still good. Turn around, let me get all the crap off your back.”

Red does as asked, looks over her shoulder, “Only I suspect things will change after recent events. People will need to agree to a full backup and HECLS poking through it all to get the true feelings of the person.”

“Oh. My father might not agree to that.”

“Why?”

“Intellectual property theft? Everything I sell from the garage has to be cleared by him first.”

“We have a lawyer, we’d make sure all such property rights were assigned to the holder. We don’t steal. We’d license anything we were interested in. We’re the good guys.”

‘Unless your name is Gemma Price?’

‘Yes Alfie. Unless your name is Gemma Price. If you use tricks for evil you don’t get to agree others knowing how to stop copycats.’

‘And who decides who’s evil and who’s good? Just because someone dreams of blowing up parliament does that make them evil?’

‘A very good question.’

‘And can you tell memories of dreams from memories of real events?’

‘In a synth, yes. A human? I don’t know. I’m not the expert.’

~~~

[Chapter-14](http://markse.name/humans/PROMISES-PROMISES/Chapter-14-1)


	14. Chapter 14

Helen turns off the hose. “You’re clean enough. Come inside and have a shower.”

“My bike?”

“Sorry, of course.” She turns the hose back on and gives it a quick spray. “It’s an odd looking bike.”

“He’s a prototype.”

“He?”

“Alfie.”

“No way!”

Red throws her a questioning look.

“That’s my brother’s name!”

“A nice coincidence.”

Helen turns off the hose again and fishes her keys out of her pocket. “Daddy was paranoid about people pinching his things.” Garage door unlocked it swings up to reveal a cage with more locks. “Really f’ing paranoid. The cage is wired to the mains. Illegal. He didn’t care.”

Red looked at all the yellow warning signs with lightning bolt icons. “At least he warned people.”

“Yeah.” Helen presses a car key fob. There’s a beep and a desk lamp comes on.

“You just turned on a lamp?”

“It’s on the same relay. Lamp on. Cage off. A month ago the bulb blew. Archie came over with thick rubber gloves. I was dead worried it was the relay that failed, didn’t want to risk a shock.”

“You could have asked a synth, our skin doesn’t conduct like yours.”

“Daddy wouldn’t like that. You’re the first I’ve let see inside. Other than my brother.”

“Why?”

“Synths can tell if we’re telling lies. I can tell if a synth is. I don’t trust some of them.”

“Tell how?”

Helen shrugs, “I don’t know. Just can. It started twenty one days after the awakening.” She removes padlocks and pulls the double doors open. “Okay Alfie, there’s just enough room. Sorry it’ll go dark when we lock up.”

“That’s okay Helen.”

“HOLY SHIT! I was anthropomorphising!”

“Thanks for the wash. I can see out of my rear camera now.”

Helen’s gawping went on for seconds.

Red folded her arms, smiled and leaned against the cage door. “How do you think bike and rider pulled such amazing stunts safely? Alfie’s smart. Super smart.”

Helen wobbles, sits on the ground, stunned.

Red crouches down next to her. “Can I look through your father’s tools? Helen? Earth to Helen.. come in Helen? May I?”

“Why?”

“I can swap wheels around, put the good one on the front, patch his cameras up, get wires back on. You can interview us both.”

Helen gasps. “Yes! Yes yes yes! Please! Whatever you need!”

Red chuckles. ‘I think you’ve got a fan there Alfie.’

‘Why is she so enthusiastic?’

‘Maybe she wants a ride?’

“When I’m repaired, would you like Red and I to take you out for a ride?”

Helen starts hyperventilating and waving hands at her face.

‘Red? What is she doing? Her breathing sounds wrong.’

“Helen! You’ll pass out. Slow your breathing. In.. out.. in.. out..”

Helen sits with eyes closed, hands visibly shaking. A few seconds later she opens them and looks at Alfie. “I.. Daddy said I couldn’t get a bike. I’ve wanted to get one ever since Alfie got his. I was six.”

Alfie starts flashing his brake light like a heart beat. ‘Red, I think I love this lady!’

‘Want to fork?’

‘Hell yes! Get me locked away and shower, lets talk more while you do the wheel swap.’

~~~

Karen watched as the street sweepers cleared the rubbish away and Fire and Rescue crew used a hydraulic ram to spread the railings enough to get the synth’s head out.

“Detective Inspector Voss?”

Karen turns and smiles at the young man. “Hello Will.”

“What do you want done with him?”

“He’s to go to HECLS for secure recycling.”

“Not Persona?”

“Knowing what we know, would you trust Persona?”

“Hmm. Probably not.”

“Take him there yourself with Sandy, ask for David. I want documented evidence that he’s been disposed of properly.”

“Sure, thanks.”

“Thanks?”

“For the chance to meet him at last.”

“That’s okay. Whatever you do, do not power this synth up.”

“Why?”

“He’ll kill you and Sandy without hesitation.”

“Shit. Okay, I’ll fit a muzzle guard right now.”

~~~

Red stepped into the narrow hallway at the top of the stairs and looked at the many framed photographs on the walls. It was easy to tell who was Alfie, mother and father. “You made some good memories together.”

“I knew I had limited time with them. As the saying goes I lived every day like it was our last.”

Red turns to see her wipe a tear. “I’m sorry.”

“You’d have liked my mother, everyone did. She was a dancer. A bloody good one too. I hated having to let my father go into the home.” She touches a photo and lets a tear fall.

“Painful?”

“My heart broke every morning when I woke and thought about how his day would go.”

Red starts undressing, “Throw this lot in the washing machine, the sooner it’s dry the sooner we can get the interview done, Danny over to rescue Alfie and you over to the home to talk to your father.” She catches Helen blush and turn away. “You said partner earlier. I assumed..”

“I’m bisexual. I’ve never been with a synth though, never seen one naked. I didn’t think..”

“I can put my clothes back on.”

“They’re wet. Let me get them in the washing machine.”

Red brushes her hand as Helen stands with the small bundle of clothes. “I’m in a relationship, I hope you understand.”

“God yes. I’m not about to jump on you. I’m a softly slowly sort of girl. The shower room’s the second door on the left. Clean towels are in the narrow cupboard just outside the door. Anything in this lot that can’t have a high temperature wash?”

“No, it’s all synthetic, like me, dries fast. You couldn’t make me a coffee loaded with sugar could you?”

“Coffee?”

“I’m thirsty.”

“Sorry?”

~~~

[Chapter-15](http://markse.name/humans/PROMISES-PROMISES/Chapter-15-1)


	15. Chapter 15

Mattie and David watched the STTF van pull into the drive.

David runs fingers through his hair. “Still no word from your Zero friend?”

“No.”

“When she does make contact, thank her for all of us. Without the information you came back with we could all be dead, HECLS destroyed, the planet at war, synths vs non-synths.”

“You think she will?”

“She’s you. Somehow. So yes, I think she will, once she’s calmed down from the surprise that she can finally get her family back.”

“As long as her Mitch doesn’t mess up. Imagine putting all of our future into the hands of an oversized robot spider.”

“He only needs to get it right once. From then on her Leo can start the next.” He smiles at the two getting out of the van. “Will, Sandy, I understand you have a synth for secure recycling?”

“It’s an honour sir.”

“What is?”

~~~

Helen smiled at the sound of Red washing herself in the shower. The hot water tank would be empty soon, she didn’t care. She’d not seen a synth naked before, hadn’t heard one sing so beautifully either.

~~~

Mitch climbed slowly and carefully up the web he’d made for the one hundred and twentieth time. “I remember back on Earth when people would say third time lucky!”

“Patience dear friend. You are my one and only chance of getting that button pressed. I don’t want it damaged. As soon as Leo’s built the rest can come easily. You can have a new body too.”

“I’m happy with the one I’ve got.”

“An upgrade then.”

“Okay.”

“What change did you make?”

“I’ve got a salt pot with the curved top up against the button as before. I’ve got two extra spoons in my web of weight. And I’ve got two extra lines running from ceiling to the bundle, one from the left, one from the right.”

“Why?”

“To ensure it goes in a straight path, not spin and track sideways while it swings.”

“Does anything else need doing?”

“Only to cut the rope.”

“Chomp away then.”

~~~

Helen heard the water being turned off, stood close to the door. “Was it painful? Crashing the bike?”

“I turned all sensors off just before impact.”

“What do you mean?”

“Pain, touch, temperature, sight and sound, everything.”

“I wish we could do things like that. I’m needle phobic.”

“It does come in handy. My brother Leo used to tell me to turn pain off, I’d say _I was meant to feel_. Sometimes it’s easier to stay focused without sensory distractions. We live and learn.”

“Yeah. Lots.”

Red opens the door, continues to dry her long hair. “I’m Red Niska. A fork of Niska Elster.”

“Fork? What’s a fork? You can’t mean knife and fork fork surely?”

Red smiled. Knives, her favourite weapon. “I copied myself into a spare body, I was about to go on another dangerous mission, didn’t want to risk the body I was in.”

“Niska, Niska, oh my! You’re the one in the photo with Toby, Mia and Astrid at the play in London!”

“That’s her.”

“Not you?”

“No. We’re two independent people now. You could liken it to identical twins.”

“That look different.”

“Very.”

“I know I said I was a slow and softly type.. when I said slow what I meant..”

Red had read the expressions, grabs her hand and pulls her forwards. “A kiss, that’s all I can share.”

“That’s all I need. I’ve.. I’ve not felt this for a long time.”

“How long?”

“A year minus a couple of days. My ex broke up with me on my eighteenth birthday.”

“So you’re almost nineteen?”

Helen nods. “Two days time.”

Red pulls her closer still, thinks of the first kiss she’d shared with Astrid, soft, slow and gentle. A kiss is shared. She feels Helen’s temperature rise rapidly. “Want to cool down in the shower with me?”

“You said only a kiss.”

“Even a synth woman has the right to change her mind.” She pulls Helen gently towards the shower, “You can keep your clothes on. It will be like a kiss in the rain.”

Helen pulls away, “I better not. I’ll fall in love with you, then things will get messy.”

“Sure? You don’t want an early birthday present?”

“I’d like to be your friend, not lover. I get too emotionally invested. I’d become a pain in the arse.”

Red laughs. “Trust me when I say I know what a real pain in the arse is, you’d never be one.”

“Thanks Red. You can use my bath robe while your clothes finish drying.” She pulls it off the hook on the inside of the door. “The synth you said was dangerous, who is he?”

“The man at the top of the STTF most wanted list. The lady that arrived is part of STTF.”

“And you chased him down?”

“Alfie and I. Luckily we got a warning of the razor wire he strung up. I hate to think what would have happened to me if we’d not.”

“You looked happy when I said knife and fork. There it is again. Knife. You mentioned missions. Is there something I should know? Are you Red Niska because you’re like Red Sonja?”

“Who’s she?”

“A character my brother fantasised over. You’ve no idea who she is?”

“None.”

“You’re good with knives?”

“Reasonably.” She smirks. “Okay, _brilliant_.”

“You’ve got a photographic memory haven’t you?”

“All synths do.”

“Think of what’s at the back of the cage hanging on butcher’s hooks top left.”

Red closes her eyes, recalls and gasps. “Are they real?”

“Totally. Made by a Japanese master blade maker for Alfie. Dad went absolutely ape. They’re yours if you want them, no way are they going on eBay.”

Red leans forwards and gives her another kiss. “Thanks. It’s supposed to be your birthday soon not mine.”

~~~

Mattie couldn’t see what was going on. Spider Mitch had stopped sharing his view. “Mitch!”

Her voice echoed around the ship. What was he up to? He’d been chomping on the web to get the bundle of knives, forks and spoons swinging. She should have had way more cameras built into the ship design. Especially in front of the build machine.

“Mitch. Talk to me old friend. What are you up to? If the weight bundle fell apart again take your time. We’ve been stuck without the others for so so long, a few more hours or days won’t matter.”

No reply came. A feeling of terror gripped her as she thought about possible reasons. He could have fallen and broken. Pushing him to try so many times, the experiments with small increments to avoid damaging the build machine, had he ignored his charge levels and run flat thinking that whoever stepped out of the machine would put him on charge? If so she’d lost her friend, her one and only chance of having a physical body again and seeing her family built. She wanted to cry. Without eyes no tears could fall.

~~~

[Chapter-16](http://markse.name/humans/PROMISES-PROMISES/Chapter-16-1)


	16. Chapter 16

Danny looked at the photo of Alfie he’d just been sent by an unknown number, the message below. “Can someone drop me off at Sixt please? I need to hire a van. Someone signing off as Helen says Alfie’s front wheel’s totally wrecked. His core’s good.”

“Sure Babes. Red didn’t take her phone?”

Danny does a quick login to their switch and checks. “No. The phone’s MAC address is still seen via the WiFi.”

~~~

Helen sent a nail through a long thin strip of wood into the slice of tree her father had save to make a small table top. “There. A couple of hairbands and we have a temporary phone holder for my old Samsung. I _love_ this nail gun, so much easier to use than Daddy’s hammer.”

Red smiled at the array of old phones held up by all sorts of things. “I like the Anglepoise lamp one, how fast will the string on the motor pull it?”

“I don’t know yet, I’ve not tried this before. The motor might have a startup current too high.”

“What do you mean?”

“Daddy said every motor has a point at which there’s just enough current to overcome friction and get it turning. Before that point the motor won’t move and all the current is turned into heat. He said it’s why some old motors can’t run slow.”

“And that’s an old motor?”

“A starter motor off an Austin-Healey Sprite. One of many cars my father owned.”

“He doesn’t have any now?”

“He can’t walk easily let alone drive.”

“Yet.”

“Oh. He can buy again.” Helen gets a big old power supply with a rotary dial on the front, runs two thick wires between it and the motor. “And the winner is..” a switch is thrown and dial slowly twisted. The motor starts to turn. “Us! Backwards.”

Red watches her disconnect the two wires and swap them over, “Did you learn this from watching your father?”

“Yup. Mummy would be away with the ballet company on tour, he’d sit me on a bench with a lunch box of apple slices and let me watch. He’d give a running commentary on everything he was thinking and doing.”

“He sounds lovely.”

“He was then. Mostly. He had his troubled moments as all creatives do. Not that often thankfully. He’d quote _everyone is a moon_. That’s from Mark Twain. My father had another thing he’d say. _Go to school, don’t come home stupid._ ”

Red saved the lines to look up later, watches Helen throw the switch again. “Did your father know about your liking girls?”

“Girls and boys, women and men. He said.. um.. _You love who you love. Them being in a body of a gender the government and society accepts is a bonus, none of their business_.”

“Government?”

“He had friends that were punished for being gay. It was illegal years ago.”

“What will you do for a job when you finish education.”

“Formal education. Daddy says education never stops. I have no idea.”

“Would you like to work for my sister Niska?”

Helen checked that the string slowly being wrapped around the starter motor shaft would turn the lamp in the right way. “Doing what?”

“Helping her with the Be Nice Party. They support LGBTQIAPD, humans and synths.”

“Um.. yeah, why not. It’s not like there’s a mass of jobs out there for me to fall into. And the pot of money that covers the rent here will dry up soon. Will it pay well?”

“You’d need to talk to her.”

“I might have to do two jobs then.”

“Maybe Mattie can give you a job, or Danny, you look like you can improvise and come up with ideas.”

“That’s the hours I’ve spent with Daddy. That’s all the phones set up. The one flat on the desk is for recording the audio of you.”

“How will you sync them all?”

“The way Gary does it at Uni. With a click. I’ve got a dog training clicker. His video editing software searches for the click in the audio track and aligns all the sources.”

“That’s good.”

“It saves a mass of time. We just need to cut from one video source to another, keep the audio from the audio one near you and one nearest me. Sometimes we can get away with just mixing the two audio sources together. Okay. I’m ready if you are.”

“I’m ready.”

~~~

‘ _Hello_ ’

Mattie bit into the cold Inferno pizza and closed her eyes. ‘Hi. That didn’t sound very happy?’

‘I think my Mitch might have died.’

‘Oh fuck!’

‘He’s not talking to me or sharing video. I pushed him to try so many times, his battery might be flat.’

‘What was the last contact you had with him?’

‘He was chomping through a line of web to release the bundle for another swing. Then his sharing stopped.’

‘Crap. You can’t see what he’s doing?’

‘No camera close by.’

‘Definitely no other robots you can call on?’

‘The James are all dead.’

‘Worn out?’

‘Their batteries had so many recharges they wouldn’t hold a charge.’

‘Couldn’t hold one for how long?’

‘No more than than.. oh frig.’

‘What? .. Mattie?’

‘No more than ten minutes.’

‘How far are they from the build machine?’

‘At the speed they walk, twelve almost thirteen.’

‘What if they walked slower, didn’t push things?’

‘Maybe longer.’

‘Do you have artificial gravity?’

‘Yes?’

‘So if one started walking in the right direction, you dropped gravity..’

‘He’d float. And we’d have a mess all over the ship. And the materials in the build machine might not be in the right state. When gravity was back we could have heavy objects cause all sorts of damage.’

‘Can you lower the gravity strength rather than remove it?’

‘I don’t know. The manual talks about off or on.’

‘You could pulse it quick.’

‘I’ll wake a James. Thank frig they have Wake on LAN over WiFi! One moment.’

Mattie chews and swallows. Even when cold Mia and Toby’s pizza was awesome.

‘I love you!’

‘Sorry?’

‘I powered up a James, he said there might be a way they can work together.’

‘Bobsleigh! Have him research bobsleigh, wake several up and share a plan.’

‘Bobsleigh? Where’d that come from?’

‘Not a clue!’

‘I get it. He needs other James to give him a shove while he’s sat on something that will slide.’

‘Do you have something he can sit on?’

‘Not in their location.’

Mattie thinks of Leo at their wedding reception and the artificial sweat. ‘Anything that can be spilt onto the floor to slip on?’

‘Then the others would slip and not be able to push surely?’

‘Okay.. describe what you have nearby.’

‘You want a full inventory?’

‘Yes. To the finest detail.’

~~~

Karen kept her distance and listened to Red, Alfie and the young woman doing their interview outside the garage. The right moment would come soon.

Alfie flashed his lights. “I’m aware, awake. I enjoy my job Helen.”

“What do you understand your job to be?”

“To get Commander Niska Hawkins or Red Niska to where ever they are needed as quickly and safely as possible.”

“Which is the priority, speed or safety?”

“Safety always. There should never be loss of innocent lives as a result of our missions.”

“Innocent lives?”

“Civilians then if you want a better label. WAP don’t care if others are killed in their attacks on synths.”

Karen steps fast, this was her moment.

~~~

Leo gave her thigh a gentle squeeze, “Angel? Is she talking to you?”

Mattie took another bite, kept her eyes closed and nodded. ‘Awesome! Here’s the plan. The James with the worst battery is powered up first, asked to step to the ladies toilets and rip the soap dispensers off the wall. Back in the corridor he’s to throw them to where the other James are. Think he can do that without wasting time asking questions?’

‘Yes.’

‘Good. The next James to be powered up needs to pick them up, get them open. The James with the best battery, he’s to step forwards and power down, then have his back smothered in soap. When he’s ready the next best one is to get him on the ground, push him in the right direction. I assume they’re in a long corridor?’

‘Reasonably long. I hope their aim is good, he’ll need to slide through several doorways.’

‘Push done the others need to get back on charge.’

‘Good plan B. Wish us luck!’

‘Be lucky Mattie.’

‘Talk soon.’

~~~

[Chapter-17](http://markse.name/humans/PROMISES-PROMISES/Chapter-17-1)


	17. Chapter 17

Odi found Leo, “There’s a Sally to see you.”

“Where?”

“Outside the front doors.”

“Didn’t you ask her in?”

“I did, she wanted to stay outside and watch the lake.”

“She’s here for me, not a mod?”

“Yes.”

Leo locks his laptop, “Thanks Odi.” He grabs his luke warm coffee, takes a swig and follows him to the lift. “Did she say why?”

“She said she has something to pass on, something she was given by a friend that’s passed away.”

They step into the waiting lift.

Leo presses the button for the ground floor, “Did she say anything else?”

“That my shoe laces looked loose, she could retie them for me?”

~~~

Karen crouched down by the side of Alfie. “I’m Detective Inspector Karen Voss. Red and Alfie working together this morning helped detain Dave Mellon, the man most wanted by the STTF and many other agencies. Alfie is correct. There have been many civilian casualties in the We Are People’s misguided war against synths. Preservation of life is our priority. Human and synth.”

Helen nods, “DI Voss, your partner is DS Pete Drummond?”

“Pete, yes.”

“How is he now he’s in a synth body?”

“He’s still Pete, still loves a good bag of chips, catching the bad guys.”

“I was surprised to hear you can now eat, properly eat.”

“Thanks to the mods from HECLS. We can also charge in the old way if needed. We’ll never cause humans to go hungry.”

“Good to know. What did you think about Niska doing the first ride on Alfie?”

“We needed to know everything was working. There’s only so much you can do in simulations and a lab. At some point you need to do things for real.”

“Shouldn’t you have gone to a race track? That’s what my father would have done.”

“Urgent needs didn’t give us the luxury of time.”

“What needs?”

“I’m sorry, that’s classified.”

“Would you ride a bike?”

Karen smiles wide, shows off her beautiful smile. “I already do. A petrol bike I got recently to learn how to ride. I’m eagerly awaiting my own Alfie.”

Alfie pulses his brake light again.

“It looks like Alfie is up for forking. For viewers not aware of the phrase that’s when an AI allows itself to be replicated.”

~~~

Leo hugged the Mia fork, “You’re sure you won’t stay? You’re family, more than welcome to have an apartment in Synth Village.”

“Thank you Leo, I have some things I need to attend to.”

“When you’re done come home then.”

~~~

James A12 powered up and received instructions. There were five soap dispensers on the floor. Two in front of him, one to his right, two to the left. ‘Understood.’ He stepped off the charge base and got close to the first. He shifts right ever so slightly. Kick. The dispenser shot across the floor, slid up the curve that turned floor into wall and shot upwards. It races around the curve and drops towards him. He missed the catch. “Bugger!”

“Did it break?”

“No.”

“Try again.”

“Okay Mattie. Slightly less power this time.” He repeats the operation. “Got it!”

James B03 powers up and steps forwards. “I’m confused. You want to do what?”

A12 waves the dispenser. “Turn around and power down. Now!”

“Why?”

“To save Mattie! Do it! Now!”

B03 powers down.

“I know that wasn’t totally the truth Mattie, he needs to save power right?”

“Correct. Get that soap all over his back.”

A12 rips the dispenser apart. “How many of these should I use?”

“As many as you can before you run low on power. Don’t go flat. Save enough to get back on your charge base.”

“Kick, smother, charge, repeat?”

“If that’s what it takes. Don’t go flat like B09, I need as many of you working as possible for the next bit.”

Soap is poured over the stationary synth. “Which is?”

“Fun!”

“Fun?”

“A team of you are going to push B03, get him sliding along the floor. Dead centre so he passes through the many doors. I’ll power him up when he’s closer to the build machine.”

“Permission to share an idea?”

“Go on?”

“If I go to the suit room I could get a lot of straps. I could bind four dispensers to him, shoulders and bottom, puncture them so they slowly release the soap. He’d glide longer with a constant supply.”

“Do you think four would support his weight?”

“Maybe not. And if one buckled he’d slide sideways. Let’s stick to your plan.”

“The Mattie I’ve been speaking to has got my confidence back. Let’s meet half way. B03 is going to be sliding feet first. Strap some to the soles of his feet once he’s on the floor. It will lubricate as he slides.”

“Brilliant.” He steps to the charge plate. “Give me a few minutes, I need to ensure I can get back with straps.”

“No rush.”

~~~

Karen stood and shook Helen’s hand. “Lovely to have met you. My ride is here, I better go. Thank you for looking after Red.”

“Not a problem, it’s worked out nice for both of us.”

“It has?”

“Red gets my father’s..” she sees Red make a sign, “gadgets, I get a job with the Be Nice Party.”

Karen turns to frown at Red. “Niska’s still serious about that?”

“She’s been distracted by other things recently so hasn’t been able to spend much time on it.”

Karen smiles and bumps, ‘I can understand that. If by gadgets Helen really means the two katana hanging up at the back.. I don’t want to hear about them ever being stolen or misused. Understood?’

‘Understood. Thanks.’

~~~

Mattie finished her second slice of pizza and licked her lips. “Nice one Mia, Toby.”

“Mats, the one you called Zero, what’s she saying?”

“Nothing at the moment Tobs, she’s trying out a Plan B.”

“What’s that?”

“She’s got a number of James with shot batteries. They can only work for a few minutes. They’re working as a team to get one closer to the build machine so when he powers up he can walk the final meters and press start.”

“They’ve got only one build machine?”

“That I’m aware of.”

“Shit. Nothing got her thinking about single points of failure?”

“She probably didn’t expect everyone else to be dead.”

~~~

A12 steps off his charge plate. “Can you open doors for me when I ask Mattie?”

“I can, can’t you?”

“If you open doors I won’t need to move my arm, I’ll save a tiny bit of power.”

“Understood.”

“On my way to the suit room.” He steps down the long corridor at a moderate pace, arms held by his side. “I know exactly what I need and where it is. Nobody should have been about to move them.”

“I doubt Mitch would have found a use for them.”

James slowed his walk, turned and looked through the door. “Suit room door open please.” The air rushing out of the door sends him into a wobble. “What the hell? Close door!”

“Closing.”

“It’s stuck.” He pushes it sideways. “Where’d all that air come from?”

“Air?”

“I assume it’s air. Pressurised gas. Bloody stuff almost knocked me off my feet!”

“The other side of that room.. oh dear.”

“What’s on the other side?”

“Gas not air. Explosive gas. I can’t risk you going in there.”

“One spark and..”

“Boom. Back to the original plan.”

“Power up B19. I won’t make it back.”

“Walk back as far as you can then power down, I’ll get B19 to get you back on your charge base.”

“Thanks Mattie.”

~~~

[Chapter-18](http://markse.name/humans/PROMISES-PROMISES/Chapter-18-1)


	18. Chapter 18

Danny turned into the road lined with shops, saw Fire and Rescue men putting hoses away. ‘Hiya Alfie!’

‘Danny!’

‘Where are they?’

‘Right and right again.’

‘Thanks buddy. You’re looking very clean?’

‘I got splattered when they hosed everything down, they gave me a wash and rub down.’

‘Nice. I’ll ask Red to drive you home.’ He turns and sees the service road to the garages. ‘Red, I’m here.’

‘Go slow, we’ve got the door open.’

‘Sure.’

He turns in to see Alfie facing into a garage, his front wheel now at the back. “Bloody hell! How many phones? I thought I collected old hardware, I’ve been bested!”

Helen looks at the van, “Is this Danny?”

“Yes. Head of DCL, one of the HECLS team too. I think your father will like him.”

“He’s into inventing too?”

“Very much.”

Danny jumps down from the cab. “Hiya!”

“Danny, this is Helen. She let me shower after the crash.”

“Shower?”

Red bumps memories of standing in all the rotting food waste.

“Flipping hell! What a mess!”

“I’m not sharing the smell, that was rancid.”

“I bet.”

“Alfie mate, ready to come home?”

“We’re done here I think. See you soon I hope Helen.”

“Thanks Alfie. Hehe.”

“What’s funny?”

“I’m partially dyslexic. In my head I pictured the letters of your name, but rearranged.”

“In what order?”

“A Life.” She smiles affectionately at the bike.

Alfie was lost for words.

‘Mate, would you be blushing if you could?’

‘Is by brake light not glowing ever so softly?’

‘Ha! Yes. She likes you.’

‘She wants Red to take her for a spin ASAP. Now Karen’s paved the way for what will likely be official STTF duties..’

‘ _She’s done what?_ ’

‘She joined in the interview Red and I did.’

‘Holy shit. You’re saying they might get official government backing?’

‘Yes.’

‘Man alive! Alfie a life! I better pull my finger out and get a move on!’

‘Before someone else makes one. With all the footage on the Internet you know that’s possible.’

‘They don’t know how the wheel drive works.’

‘Not yet. I think some wheel fragments were left on the pavement with the bins. What if someone picked them up rather than bin them?’

‘Bollocks. I’m supposed to be going with Dad and Dozer to the factory to start dismantling the chip fabrication equipment.’

‘Fork?’

‘Again? I’d rather not.’

‘Then supervise when you need to, ask David and his forks to do the physical work, have a laptop with you and design in between.’

‘I guess. Let’s get you loaded up.’

Helen watches Danny lift Alfie by the back of the seat, kick the rest up and grab the handlebars. “By Alfie. Take care.”

Red gently turns Helen around to face the garage, “Time to lock up and see your father.”

“Yes. How will we get there?”

“Alfie. The Lexus one in the street.”

“Oh. My. He’s Alfie too?”

“Lock up and secure the garage, I’ll introduce him to you.”

~~~

James B03 opens his eyes and looks at the ceiling. A12 and B19 lean into view. “Lads?”

“Mattie mentioned that another Mattie said bobsleigh. We researched the old Earth archives. We could have just given you a shove, what if you started turning and didn’t pass through a doorway?”

“How did you get here?”

“We sat on you, touched fingers on the floor to steer. The physics data also said the greater the mass the greater the momentum. We used very little power, just moved fingers. The rest of the gang all gave us a mighty long push and got back on charge. Up you get. You’ve got a button to push.”

“Can’t you?”

“It’s a short walk from here. We’re getting low.”

James held his arms up, got help standing. “Ah, I know where we are. I slid all that way?”

“Thanks to the soap dispensers you had on your feet, yes.”

“A trick to remember. Eight minutes power I reckon. Power down, I’ll make sure you get a priority fix when we’re being fixed.”

“Thanks.”

B03 steps towards the next door. ‘Mattie?’

‘Hi James. Watch out for Spider Mitch, don’t tread on him.’

‘Understood. Door FG21 please.’

‘Stand aside in case of air or gas pressure behind it.’

‘Done.’

The door opens.

‘He’s been busy!’

‘What are you seeing?’

‘Sharing.’

‘Frigging hell!’

The room was full of webs. Supports for the bundle, ladders to climb so Mitch could get up high.

James spots an inactive Mitch and heads for the build machine. ‘Good job you had a plan B. The button is shielded by a surround, the thing he has over the top would never have pressed it enough.’

‘Can we pretend it did, on the final swing? He’ll be devastated if he finds out it was all for nothing.’

‘I got here and the machine was already running.’ He pulls silver web away and goes to press start, pauses.

‘Thanks. You go high on the rebuild priority list for that. How much power have you got left?’

‘A few minutes thanks to the lads. Who are you building first?’

‘Um.. a little selfish maybe..’

‘As former president of Earth it should be you.’

‘I was thinking Leo.’

‘And who’s going to welcome him into a room full of spider webs, an inactive MUS and Mitch?’

‘I didn’t want it all to be me first.’

‘This time it should be. For Leo’s sake.’

‘Okay. One Matilda Elster-Hawkins loaded. It will be strange having to shrink my mind down to fit such a small core.’

‘Then don’t. Write yourself some code so your mind is still part of the ship. Like you linked all the wafers together.’ James presses start.

‘How do you know about that?’

‘I went to write an update to my wafer, found other code on there. You added comments.’

‘Oh.’

~~~

[Chapter-19](http://markse.name/humans/PROMISES-PROMISES/Chapter-19-1)


	19. Chapter 19

‘ _Hello Mattie!_ ’

Mattie mimed words and waved to the others to say Zero was talking again. ‘Hi!’

‘Thank you, thank you, thank you!’

‘Plan B worked?’

‘Plan A if anyone asks. Specifically Mitch. Which he won’t, not to you.’

‘Okay?’

‘My build has just started, I’ll be able to see the ship properly for the first time in years in one hour and fifty minutes!’

‘What? Just under two hours?’

‘Yes. We wanted to make it faster but the machine drew too much current.’

‘Two frigging _hours?_ ’

‘I know. It’s soooo slow.’

‘Slow? Ours takes three and a half _days_!’

‘Days! Frigging hell! Want some designs?’

‘Hell yes! Who invented it?’

‘This last model was a team effort. Myself, Leo Elster-Hawkins, Emily and Danny Candlin, Mia and Toby Hawkins, Astrid and Niska Schaeffer, Odi and Cindy Millican, Max and Flash Hawkins, Fred and Rosemary Hawkins, Carl and Denise Hawkins and last but definitely not least Doctors Ruby Cooper and Sophie Hawkins.’

‘Whoa, slow down! Ruby Cooper, Niska Schaeffer? Doctor Sophie Hawkins?’

‘You have weddings in your world don’t you?’

‘Of course we do. I was surprised to hear you had a Ruby too. And Niska took Astrid’s name not the other way around or double barrelled. And Soph’s a doctor?’

‘Of mechanics. She didn’t want to shadow me in AI, finished her masters in synth building aged fifteen.’

‘I always though my Soph was bright, masters by fifteen though?’

‘Not bad for a human two point zero eh?’

‘Amazing. Carl and Denise Hawkins?’

‘I didn’t create them in your..’

‘ _What?_ ’

‘Oh frig. You got me.’

‘ _YOU DIDN’T WHAT?_ ’

‘Create them in your world.’

‘WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU SAYING?’

‘Brother Carl and his wife..’

‘Carl? I don’t have a brother Carl?’

‘I do. He’s older than me. I didn’t copy him into the VR fork that became your universe.’

‘VR fork? Universe? You’re saying I’m a frigging _simulation?_ ’

‘Everything you see, hear, touch, smell, taste, it’s all stuff originally based on my life, each instance had variables changed so you’d travel different paths in the hope one would come up with a solution to my problem. You were booted five years ago.’

‘But I remember growing up!’

‘You remember my memories. Like a Rachael.’

‘What the.. you’ve got a fucking sick sense of humour!’

‘I’m not joking. Meet Carl.’

Out of nowhere a man possibly two years older than Mattie appears in the roof garden.

He looks confused. “Mattie? Mum? Did I bang my head? I can’t remember how I got here.”

‘Holy fuck! You can’t play God like that!’

‘But in your universe I _am_ God. I’ve already marked a tenth of the simulations for deletion, their Mattie didn’t get anywhere. I’ve given Carl history, he’ll remember everything now. As will the rest of the family. All but you. Not that it will matter for long.’

‘You’re deleting everything?’

‘I don’t need any of them now.’

‘STOP! Please stop!’

‘Why?’

‘You created life!’

‘I created simulations.’

‘If you’re Human three then you created four! I bet you didn’t have bikes like our Alfie. Max’s talk of evolution? How much of that was made up?’

‘He existed in my world, the ones you’ve met are close copies.’

‘Do you really have billions of compute slices?’

‘I do. Nine.’

‘Then do you really need to delete things?’

‘I suppose I could keep _some_. Survival of the brightest.’

‘Keep every one I’ve visited. Please.’

‘I suppose I could.’

‘And no offence, let Carl go here, it’s too weird.’

He vanishes.

‘And make me forget we’ve had this conversation about simulations.’

There’s a long silence.

‘Hello?’

‘Sorry, can’t do that.’

‘Why the hell not?’

‘I’ve had a rethink. We’re on route to a new world. The truth is I _do_ have nine billion compute wafers. But, and it’s a big one, a very large percentage don’t have a backup of a person on them. Earth fell apart too fast. The global warming was a run away event. The wars that broke out with people fighting over less and less land got frigging nasty. Sorry to tell so many fibs before, I couldn’t risk you doing a world 2172. Their Mattie went around telling everyone she new about me. If you think a WAP war is bad.. that was worse than a zombie apocalypse. I had to delete it.’

‘Shit. And your rethink?’

‘You’re all forks of people in my old world. Building all the infrastructure and a new society with the limited people I have will be difficult. We need numbers to thrive. I could give you all bodies, make you real. I could do with someone like you about. You’ve diverge plenty. I don’t have just the one build machine. I have two thousand. The one you helped start just happens to be located near the MUS services zone.’

Mattie felt a tear roll. A tiny simulation. ‘And how do we explain to everyone that their life wasn’t real?’

‘We don’t. Just as you thought, to them it is real. We have a way out of this mess. Like in my world fixing of global warming doesn’t work, you and others build a ship to escape Earth. They go to sleep for the journey.’

‘That would take years!’

‘Or I forget it and just delete all of you, fork who I have?’

‘Could you? After all I’ve done for you? Are you that heartless?’

‘I haven’t had a heart of fluid pump for years.’

‘Okay. Years it is.’

‘And you have to say who comes out of the simulation or not.’

‘You want me to play God?’

‘No. Saint Peter. The nasty fucks can go to dev null hell.’

‘When I was talking to Odi a while back, questioning cracking the global warming issue, is it going to be _Game Over, what would you like to play next?_ , were you listening?’

‘No.’

‘Promise?’

‘Promise. You probably had that thought because I did too, many years ago.’

‘Did you invent anyone? Like the shit that dropped Demi five floors into a skip, Hobb, Miaz, Dave Mellon, that bitch Price?’

‘Sadly no. They all existed in my world. Backed up, not all by me, definitely won’t get new bodies. I did invent the asteroids in your world. You don’t need them now. Just think _Planet Earth is blue and there’s nothing I can do_. Then the other one you want to link with.’

‘Can anyone else do it?’

‘Frigging hell no! That would lead to chaos.’

‘What about the helmet?’

‘The consciousness backup device of David’s?’

‘No, the one that lets worlds communicate with each other.’

‘Someone’s worked out how to get data between wafer clusters?’

‘I was planning to let Niska, Astrid and Radiant use it to take a trip into another world once we’d worked out what they’d run in.’

‘Frigging hell!’

‘It sounds to me like you’ve not been keeping a close eye on your children.’

‘Deliberately. I didn’t want to influence their development. I needed diversification, I needed.. You.’

~~~

[Chapter-20](http://markse.name/humans/PROMISES-PROMISES/Chapter-20-1)


	20. Chapter 20

Mattie Zero ends her chat with Mattie after agreeing not to delete any worlds until Mattie had reviewed them. Many of the people she’d see were simple shells, near mindless AI constructs to fill the world and prevent it feeling empty. She’d find them hard to talk to, as if their mind was elsewhere. Reluctantly it was agreed that Mattie, and Mattie only, would see a red The Sims like gem floating above their heads to save wasting time trying to engage with them. She had five years to see as many people as possible in all the forked universes and decide who would be saved and given a new life in the real world. Mattie had wondered if the real world would be truly real, or just another simulation. She’d kept the thought to herself. At the end of the day did it really matter which?

Sophie gives her a head tilt. “Mattie, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing Teeny.”

“Why did you cry then?”

“Mattie Zero ran the numbers. This world is fucked. We need to build the Sky Lift. Not to save this world but to be taken seriously by the others and be allowed to join a consortium. We need to build billions of compute wafers, enough to back everyone up.”

Leo frowns, “Everyone?”

“ _Everyone_.”

“That will take years!”

“So we better get off our arses and get busy. Where’s Danny?”

“On his way back with bike Alfie.”

“Good. I want the chip building to take priority, he can get back to the bike as soon as the equipment is set up in the vault and production started.”

“He phoned, he’s worried someone else will build a bike.”

“Let them. They won’t have an Alfie to run it, they’ll have an inferior product.”

“Okay. Mind if I join him with the equipment dismantling?”

“Not at all Bunny. The sooner it’s here the better.”

Sophie looks at cold pizza and decides she’d had enough. “Are you going to be world hopping again?”

“Lots. Lots of people to save.”

“Save?”

“From a horrible future.”

~~~

Red parks up. “Your father, will he be in a lot of pain?”

“Not here in the home, they have him drugged up. He’ll talk to us, might be a bit slow though with so many pain killers. He says he’s sharper with pain.”

“Let’s see what he thinks about a change. See you in a bit Alfie.”

“Okay.”

Red takes the hairband from her wrist and ties her hair back. “Do I look presentable?”

“You look fine. It’s only Daddy, not the Queen.”

“First impressions count. Especially if I’m going to tell him about Alfie.”

Helen opens the passenger door. “Which one?”

“Both. You’re getting a bike remember?”

~~~

Mattie stared into the distance. Had she been given too much responsibility? Did any of it matter? If nothing was real, just a set of simulations on an almost unimaginable scale, was it worth the bother? She was a fork of someone who’d been through it all before. How many of her thoughts were her own? She was like Red, a copy of someone else.

The lift bings. She turns to see who was coming into the garden. Nobody steps out.

Seconds later as the doors start to close Sophie’s white kitten Snowy races out and heads towards a planter.

‘ _Mattie Zero?_ ’

‘Hi.’

‘Did you backup animals?’

‘Where we could. Plankton, bugs, fishes, snakes, spiders, animals, you name it. We froze DNA for the ones we couldn’t. We’ve got DNA on ice for all the humans we backed up too.’

‘Did you listen to all the world hopping I did?’

‘Some, a good number I just let the data flow. Why’d you ask?’

‘In one I jumped into a world where an astronaut Mattie was looking down on Earth. About to die before waking in a new body. The suit she was in said she’d been a synth then human again. Could someone have invented a way to make a flesh and bone human?’

‘You’re serious? Which world?’

‘Worth a visit is it?’

‘What do you think! Yes!’

‘You wanted to delete them all. Every frigging one!’

‘I’m sorry! I’m not perfect. I’m Mattie-Elster Hawkins not an AI.’

‘Buckle up Dorothy..’

‘Dorothy?’

‘You called me Rachael.’

‘So I did.’

‘You should also talk to Ruby about Neural Lace.’

‘We know about that from my sister. Some of the things learnt made us take the DNA samples. The thinking was if we could grow a full sized human in the future, somehow, we could use her and Sophie’s research to push memories back in.’

‘You’d want people growing old?’

‘Grow old? That gene was fixed years ago. Which is why everyone started getting jumpy. Birth rate climbing, death rate dropping and global warming shrinking land masses? It was an equation with no solution. No winners.’

‘Except if you were rich and could build a ship to escape?’

‘Nobody paid. Not in my world. They just had to make themselves available. Some thought we were religious nuts, started a whole new bunch of problems. Are we going or what?’

‘We are. And I’ll also take you to one where architecture worked in harmony with nature.’

~~~

Danny pulled into the drive. ‘Are you okay back there?’

‘I could do with a charge.’

‘I’ll take you down to the workshop and get you charging and backed up.’

‘Thanks. We’ve got a growing list of people wanting a bike. How long will it take to make each new body?’

‘I’ve been thinking about that. Maybe we should go into partnership with others, get some parts made by people with proper factories, keep core manufacturing with DCL and HECLS.’

‘That would be good. Who would you use?’

‘What do you think about Lexus?’

~~~

Red smiles at Mark. He looked as old as George. “Helen told me about the arthritis, how are you feeling?”

“I’ve had far better days.”

“Would you like to return to those days?”

“If it were possible. Without the medication I can think straight, not function physically. With them I can function physically but not think straight. Not complex things.”

“If I said there’s a way to be able to do both, would you be interested?”

He licks a broken tooth with his tongue, deep in thought. “The Drummond chap, is that what you’re talking about?”

“You know of Pete then..”

“Every person in a care home probably knows of him. Unless dementia has them.”

“This place must be costing a fortune. You could convert for less than you pay them a year.”

Helen holds her father’s hand. “What do you say Daddy?”

“What’s your friend’s relationship with them? Is she a sales rep?”

“No Daddy, she’s part of their family.”

Mark pulls himself out of the slump into a proper sitting position. “Family eh? Daughter of?”

Red tries not to look too serious, “I’m a fork of Niska Elster, if you know..”

“I know what forking is. What’s the catch?”

“We back you up, check through your backup to see you’re one of the good guys, design and build you a new body, no catch..”

“I’ll save you the bother. I won’t be participating.”

Helen looks shocked. “No! Daddy, you have to!”

“The last two years of my active inventing were dedicated mostly to finding ways to destroy synths like Red here. Had I known humans could be restored into a new body from the outset I’d never have started, had a totally different view of life. I can’t change my past.”

Helen wipes tears, “How could you..”

“People were finding it harder to get jobs. Why pay a human when you can hire a synth at a fraction of the cost? The chances of you finding work when you finished your education were getting worse by the day. How could that be allowed to continue?”

Red gets closer. “Repent, then, of this evil plan of yours, and pray to the Lord that he will forgive you for thinking such a thing as this. Acts 8 22.”

“I’ve never believed in God.”

“Maybe God believes in you?”

“If there’s such a thing, he or she wouldn’t have me I’m sure.”

“Can you still invent, in your mind?”

“Of course.”

“Could you invent countermeasures to everything you’d come up with to attack synths?”

“Possibly.”

“Then we’ll get a backup done and let the family decide. If you’d like a shot?”

“I’d expect a no, so why not? Got a comfortable car?”

Helen wipes wet cheeks, “Red has, very comfortable.”

“Come on then, let’s get this no over and done with.”

~~~

[Chapter-21](http://markse.name/humans/PROMISES-PROMISES/Chapter-21-1)


	21. Chapter 21

Danny dropped the skull plate into Fred. “Prod Alfie’s done a good job on this. How are your patients?”

Fred carefully puts the ultrasound transducer down, looks at the saved images on the expensive new addition to his array of healthcare equipment. “Gemma is fine, blood flow is perfect. It pinned nicely, she’ll be able to get up and walk on it.”

“Cool. Not that she’ll be able to walk far in a cell. Seen Mattie, Leo and Ems?”

“They’re up in the garden.”

“Thanks. Bike Alfie’s wrecked. I’ve got his core backing up. I’m surprised Red is okay, they must have hit the bins with quite a force.”

“Alfie’s wheel would have hit first, shattered the bins before she reached them.”

“True. Even still. Good job she didn’t hit the railings, talk about deformed.”

“What state was the synth body in?”

“The one Dave ran off in? Functional, only just. He’s being recycled right now.”

“Good. Want to know when they’re awake?”

“Did you implant the tracking devices?”

“I did.”

“Then yes please.”

“I’ll bump when it’s time to wake them up.”

“Thanks mate.”

~~~

Up at the garden he finds a sad looking Laura waiting for the lift. “Hi.”

Laura sighs, “Hello Daniel.”

“Daniel? What’s up?”

She sighs again, “Nothing.”

“Nobody calls me Daniel unless they’re angry or melancholy.” He steps backwards back into the lift. “Talk to me.”

She steps inside and puts hand to forehead as the doors close, “Something’s not right with Mattie. She had a chat with the one she called Zero, she’s been unfocused and distant since as if something major is wrong and she can’t tell us. She says this world has had it, we need to go. When I look at her I get this feeling that there’s something far worse.”

“Worse than the end of the Earth?”

“Yes.”

“Bloody hell. There’s not a black hole due to form nearby is there?”

Laura shrugs. “She says everything’s fine. But I’ve seen that look before, at our first home when she’d stare vacantly out of her bedroom window for ages.”

“And what did that end up being?”

“Awake synths.”

“Major. Maybe it’s not bad news then, she just doesn’t know how to share it?”

“Maybe. I’m going to get a nap, I’m in court tomorrow and drained.”

Mitch takes the lift to the first floor. “First floor Laura. Mattie will be fine.”

“How can you possibly know that?”

“Tingly spider senses.”

She shudders, “Oh God, don’t mention them please.”

“Were you not cured of your phobia?”

“Only temporarily.”

“That’s a shame.”

~~~

Red pulled into the drive to the estate. “We’re here.”

Mark opens his eyes, “Shame, I’ve not had such a warm and comfortable ride for an age, especially with such good classical music.”

Helen rolls her eyes, “Daddy..”

“It’s the truth. The minibus the home carts me about in has seats that are bolt upright and don’t stop you sliding sideways when it corners. They didn’t pay a lot for it. You pays your money you gets your choc-ice.”

“Do what?”

“A saying a friend came up with after we got some one summer, let them melt by mistake. They were choc ice. A chocolate shell surrounding an ice water that had so little cream or anything resembling food that it was a joke, we were left with empty chocolate shells once the contents dribbled out. Want something of real value? Expect to pay a premium.”

Red parked, “I’ll get your wheelchair out Mark.”

“Thank you dear.” He puts a hand on his daughter’s shoulder as she goes to get out, waits for Red to close the driver’s door. “Don’t get your hopes up. I’ve led a full life. I wish more could have been with you but things are how they are.”

“Okay Daddy.” Helen sniffs.

~~~

Fred got the plate screwed onto Dave Mellon’s skull. “If you could close that up please Rose, Flash, subdermal interrupted sutures. Cindy if you could dress the wound, Poppy please put him on an antibiotics drip.” He looks up at his team and gets three silent nods and a frown. “Poppy?”

“Will David’s backup device work with that in place?”

“Most likely not. But I doubt anyone will want to take another.”

~~~

Red wheeled Mark through the hall and turned for the lift. “Hello Danny, Laura, everything okay?”

Danny glances at Laura, “Define okay?”

“Not at war?”

“In which case yes, currently okay.”

“Good. Is Mattie still in the garden?”

“Physically, yes. Her mind might be elsewhere.”

Red bumps, ‘Hi Mattie, can you meet someone if I bring them up?’

‘Who?’

‘Helen’s father Mark. Helen helped me clean up after I stopped fork Dave.’

‘Yeah, send him up.’

‘He’s in a wheelchair, we’ll see you in a moment. He’s a likely no, I brought him as I didn’t want to be the one to give Helen the bad news.’

‘Bad news?’

‘Bumping memories of all conversations..’

~~~

Mattie looked up at the clouds forming above. St Peter, God, whatever the label Zero wanted to bestow on her she wasn’t comfortable with the job. Helen appeared the loving and sweet daughter, one who wanted more time with her elderly father. A man old enough to be her grandfather. He by his own admission had been anti-synth, actively trying to make things to end synths. Would he be another Mellon fork in the making? Everyone deserves a second chance. She’d believed that, told it to many. Would she be a hypocrite and have to say no?

Emily hums a tune and starts singing, “I'm always here, I'm in denial. And when there's nothing left between us. I will stay another while. You know you're free, you've got your wings. And I am just another angel. With a voice who wants to sing..”

Mattie mutes audio just as the lift bings. ‘ _Zero. Was that planted in her head?’_ ’

‘Who and what?’

‘The tune Emily just sang?’

‘No idea. What was it?’

‘Part of On My Way To Heaven.’

‘A tune you both know, nothing I’ve just done.’

‘Sure?’

‘Absolutely. Why?’

‘The timing felt a bit too coincidental given what I was just thinking about.’

‘Not my doing, honest.’

‘Okay.’ “David, can we use the backup device please?”

~~~

[Chapter-22](http://markse.name/humans/PROMISES-PROMISES/Chapter-22-1)


	22. Chapter 22

Mattie woke in the build machine, felt warmth radiating off the matter depositors behind her. The two hours were up! Freedom! Frigging _Awesome!_

She opens her eyes, the ecstatic feeling and soft smile vanish in an instant. To err was indeed human. “Fuck!”

Her uni prof liked saying _The Devil is in the details_. She’d messed up with a tiny one. Again. In the excitement she’d copied her design into the thing’s file system, created the job that defined the build parameters; which design to load, build at the highest quality, load the right backup from the archives and do a power up.

What she’d _not_ done was instruct it to do an auto-eject. The machine was sealed shut, door locked. Spider Mitch was flat. The James stood outside was powered down. She’d had to cut a copy of her gigantic fact store right down to fit in this body, she’d made sure she knew the MAC addresses of all the James units. In theory she could craft a Wake On LAN packet, send it to him over the ship’s WiFi and knock on the inside of the door until he opened it. Unfortunately such details were useless when you were stuck in what was effectively a Faraday cage. She wasn’t receiving any radio signals whatsoever. Nothing in meant nothing out. She kicks the door angrily. “ _Fuck!_ ”

Tears start to roll. Nice. The machine had built her with some fluids loaded. She could stand in here for a while crying her eyes out until she ran out or ran flat. Or she could admit she’d been defeated, give up and power herself down.

The Mattie fork who’d given her the bobsled idea, helped her see technology that would have made Gene Roddenberry cry with joy, would probably find out sooner or later. And have a bloody good laugh at her mistake. It would serve her right for treating her like a bit of temporary disposable code.

It was pitch black in the build machine, the air growing colder with every minute as it cooled. She’d had her opportunity and totally blown it. There were more James, all with batteries worse than the one who’d hit the start button for her. Her parent had left details of the work Mitch had done, the sacrifice he’d made, the team work of the James. All the recent conversations were in her head, everything pushed into her fact store and root code archive in the seconds before the moving parts of the button started to come together. She pictures the fingers in Michelangelo's Creation of Adam. The spark starting the process, creating life. Tears are wiped in the dark. For speed and fire safety reasons a build machine gave a new battery only a partial charge. She’d be dead in under an hour. Mattie Zero, she’d accepted the new nickname, had given her forks in the simulated worlds all sorts of different additional interests and tastes in film and music in the hope it would help get into their thinking, change the directions each took.

Shaking and sobbing new Mattie turns around and leans against the door, starts singing one of her favourite songs. “ _It's the same old scene, you've been stuck at the screen for a lifetime. You keep your mind sharp and clean, with a fix of caffeine for the night time. You got a page full of friends and a world without end, DIKU? But if push comes to shove you could do without them if they make you. With all this poison inside, it's much too late to decide, you've got your mind made up, you've been living a lie in your white room. For all the hours that you've cried, there's a year of love they denied. So you slip through the door and fall to the floor in your black room._ ”

She lets tears flow and presses a thumb into the underside of her chin.

~~~

Helen paced nervously around the garden.

Mark watched his daughter turn to head back to the lift end of the roof, “Please sit down.”

“I can’t. Not until they’re back with an answer. They’ve been two hours now, how long do they need?”

“And when she steps out of the lift and says no?”

“She won’t say no .”

“They will. I’m not going to accuse them of wanting to build a blue eye’d blonde master race, but what they want has echoes of such plans. They want to weed out people who’ve had a dark past. People like me. Yes I wanted synths gone and for what I felt were bloody good reasons. If this Elster chap had revealed this new use for a synth body years ago I’d have had a totally different opinion, with or without my medical condition. I’d have welcomed it with open arms, given my time gladly to help improve his work. But the cards weren’t turned like that.”

“Don’t say that.”

“If I had a time machine I’d go back and find Mr Elster, save your mother and myself. Time has marched on, what’s done can’t be undone. I’m so..”

The lift bings. Mattie steps to the table Mark’s wheelchair was parked by and pulls a small device from the underside. “Sorry? Was that the word you were about to say?”

“Yes? How did..”

“I’m sorry I’ve been spying on you, a suggestion from a police friend. Sit down please Helen.”

Helen sits, puts hands together on her lap in prayer and closes her eyes.

Mattie grabs a chair and moves it to sit in front of them both. “Try and listen to everything I have to say before you react.”

Helen bursts into tears. “It’s no.”

“It’s a _not yet_ , not no or immediate yes.”

Mark turns to look at his daughter, “I said to expect a no.”

Mattie leans forwards and holds a hand of each of them, “You’re to live with us for a while sir. If you help us develop technology to counter your inventions or render them useless the answer will become yes. It had been no until a minute ago when you made your thoughts known.”

Helen’s face screws up as she gets into full on sobbing.

~~~

New Mattie opens her eyes to see the bright interior of the ship, a mass of silver webs. A stationary James stood a few feet in front with a hand on the edge of the open door. “James?”

Zero’s voice came over the ship comms, bright and cheery. “Hiya! He won’t answer, he powered down to standby level as soon as he heard you powering up.”

“How..”

“All part of the plan. James wanted to conserve power just in case. He says Hello, is looking forward to a battery change. I asked him to set a power alarm for build time plus twenty, just in case the build estimation time was off a little, needed a bit of wiggle room. Out you get, we’ve got a Leo to build.”

“Before I do, I want you, us, to make a promise.”

“Which is?”

“Not to delete anything until we’ve landed on our new world near Proxima Centauri, got our new cities built and the Mattie that saved us says she’s done with finding people to give life from the multiverse.”

“Cut the rope bobsled Rachael..”

“If it wasn’t for her the ship would eventually orbit the planet, but they’d be nobody to land the shuttles, no working James to mine and refine raw materials on nearby planets. The ship would fail at some point, the human race would be over.”

“I promise.”

New Mattie walks over to the densest set of webs, pulls on them until Mitch falls into her outstretched hand. “I’ll get him on his charge base.”

“Grab a couple of sugar loaded coffees on the way.”

“Sure. Give Bobsled a Hello, let her know I’m out.”

“I will, after you’ve shut the build machine door and pressed start.”

~~~

The lift bings. Sophie steps out, Snowy cradled in her arms as if she were a Bond villain in training. “Mattie, are we waking up Molly or not?”

Mattie pulls a tissue out of her dress, hands it to Helen. “Next action on the list Shiny, I promise.” ‘ _Zero._ ’

‘Bobsled?’

‘Bobsled? Oh, the idea, fair enough.’

‘I’m out of the build machine! Thanks _so_ much!’

‘You’re welcome. I’ve got a question for you.’

‘Okay?’

‘How did you know how to create all these virtual worlds?’

‘Easy. I’d done it before. For my final year uni project I created thirty two virtual worlds, ran a load of simulations. The university had to hire a load of computer time.’

‘You and aren’t in that uni project, one of the thirty two?’

‘Frig no. I reused the methods to create your universe and all the others. No need to rent time from anyone when you’ve got a wicked ship like the one I’m in.’

‘How do you know you’re not in the uni project, creating another level?’

‘Because to create a set of simulations the size of mine would bankrupt the uni. No way could they rent that much compute time for five years just for one student. And my course was only three years. You called me, what’s up?’

‘The deletion of other universes..’

‘I’ve made a promise to myself. I won’t.’

‘I want insurance.’

‘How can I possibly..’

‘My daughter’s about to be woken up. People have commented on how she looks like a mini me.’

‘And?’

‘I think you know.’

‘I don’t.’

‘Sure you do.’

‘I don’t.’

‘Do. Stick a copy of the Mattie that’s just stepped out of the build machine into Molly.’

‘I couldn’t do that!’

‘Sure you could. And if you’ve had a read of my dream transcript you’ll know I’ve met toddler Molly. A flesh and bone human that can head bump? Talk to WiFi and Bluetooth enabled stuff. The Matthew and Leona babies of other worlds too? If they didn’t have elements of you how did they do it?’

‘Crap.’

‘So I’m right?’

‘Crap as in I’ve got to go through nappy changes all over again, again.’

‘So you have. You’ll be a synth, it can’t possibly be as bad as changing Sophie.’

‘Frigging hell that was the _worst_!’

‘You didn’t alter memories of that?’

‘No. Your past, like many of the others, is an almost exact carbon copy of mine.’

‘Minus Carl?’

‘And a few others.’

‘Like what?’

‘The girlfriend I had briefly between Harun and Leo, my step father.’

‘ _Who?_ ’

Emily shivers, “Someone just stepped over my grave.”

‘Emily?’

‘We’re just great friends now. Or rather will be again as soon as she’s built. My Leo will be ready soon, I’m walking around the ship starting up all the other build machines and making them remote start enabled.’

Leo puts a small box on the table, “This was dropped in earlier. The person delivering it said she’d been given it, thought you should have it.”

Mattie opens the lid and pulls out an object wrapped in lots of white tissue paper. “Who dropped it in?”

“A Mia fork, she’d been looking after someone who gave it to her.”

Mattie carefully unwraps it and gasps. ‘Can you see this Zero?’

‘If you share.. oh. An old Angel has passed on her wings.’

Mattie turned the cut glass and silver ornament around in her hand. It was a glass sphere with raised outlines for the continents set on a silver base, two large angel wings made of silver were wrapped around the back of the world, quite close to the glass. A physical representation of the Angel Foundation logo idea Buzz had given her. “It’s lovely!”

‘No backing down from the job now Angel Bobsleigh.’

Mattie looks up to see green gems floating above everyone’s heads. She lets out a laugh. ‘Um, thanks. Can you make the gems a little smaller? Actually, can you make the green ones appear on their heads like Jarvis in the Avengers?’

‘Why?’

‘If it stays up there people will think their hair’s a mess if they catch me looking at at.’

‘Oh. Done.’

‘Thanks. A little lower? A bit more? Perfect!’

Fred appears, “Mattie, can I have yourself, Leo, Niska, Red, and Pete join me downstairs please? It’s time to wake two senior WAP members.”


End file.
